"Julia Hawkins' boyfriend beat her for at least two years before slitting her throat and killing her.

Yellow police tape marked the murder-suicide scene at Hawkins' home in Missoula when Cindy Umphrey arrived to identify her 36-year-old sister.

Two years later, in 1995, her 17-year-old niece, Tambi Weinberger, also died at the hands of a boyfriend.

�He got jealous over her and started beating her,� Umphrey said. �He kicked her in the head so many times, the whole right and left sides of her head were just like mush.�

If a person kills an intimate partner in a fit of rage, it's called murder.

But for too long, such deaths were attributed to a �crime of passion,� said Vickie Amundson, president of Montana's Silent Witness Initiative.

�They're getting over that one.�

Amundson belongs to a larger network, the Silent Witness National Initiative, organized 15 years ago to create awareness of domestic violence homicides."

Get the Story:
Jodi Rave: Domestic violence: Silhouettes stand up for homicide victims (The Missoulian 9/26)

Relevant Links:
Jodi Rave - http://www.missoulian.com/jodirave

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