Horrific Murders of Women in Detroit

Apr 15, 2013

Recently three women were murdered in horrific ways in the Detroit area by their estranged husbands or boyfriends.

On April 8, Lucinda Bailey was stabbed to death by her husband in their home in Inkster, Michigan. According to Bailey’s brother, she had tried to leave her husband several times after being repeatedly abused by him. After killing Bailey, her husband burned himself to death by getting into his pickup truck in the family garage and setting both the garage and the truck on fire.

On the same day, Lorian Joy Handy was shot to death in her home in White Lake Township by her husband, who then shot himself to death. Their 8-year-old son fled from the house to a neighbor.

A day later, Sharita Williams was shot to death by her estranged boyfriend on her job as a receptionist at a medical center in Detroit. After breaking up with him, Williams had moved and changed her phone number to try to get away from him. She had also gotten a personal protective order against him. After shooting Williams, he went to the building basement, started a fire and shot himself to death. The fire ended up burning down the entire building.

These horrific murders follow an all-too-familiar pattern. More than three-fifths of all women who are murdered in the U.S. are killed by their husbands or boyfriends. When women try to leave husbands or boyfriends, sometimes after being abused in the relationship, the men involved don’t accept the woman’s right to leave and end up killing them. In some cases, like these three, the men are so devastated that they then kill themselves.

This is a mark of a society where men still treat women as property to dispose of as they see fit–just like other property under capitalism.