About once every four months in Hampton Roads, family relationships end in murders and suicides.
Records show it happens most often in Virginia Beach and Suffolk-- 13 times in four years in Hampton Roads.
Lisa Furr is convinced that with the right tools, police and social workers can predict these murders, and prevent them.
She works for the Virginia Attorney General. That office wants to put a simple 11-question survey in the hands of police officers, to predict, scientifically, who is going to snap.
Here are the survey's top red flags:
Threats to kill.
Any threats with a gun.
And the big one, strangulation.
“The act of strangulation is one of the biggest factors in a situation becoming a lethal. That is, again, a power and control issue, where the abuser is telling the victim, I could kill you,” says Furr.
Furr says honest answers on the survey will forecast murder, and get help for a victim before it comes to that. This is still in its very early stages, but she believes the police officers are equipped with this single page, they can show a victim where the abuse is heading.
