The deaths of three women and a toddler in different parts of the state this month followed a pattern of domestic abuse that’s often predictable and avoidable.

All three women were domestic violence victims who spent the last moments of their lives with their abusers, according to police and court records.

Police say Nicole Hughes, 35, of Franklin, and Laurie MacLellan, 59, of Manchester, were killed by their partners. Gina Maiorano, 27, of Henniker, was found dead on the side of Interstate 89. She was in the car with her partner and died of blunt force trauma caused by her body hitting the road.

In each case, there was evidence of abuse and fleeting opportunities to start over.

“There have been consistent reports about the severity of abuse and the types of abuse that these victims and their children are experiencing,” said Amanda Grady Sexton, director of public affairs for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. “The reports are not further increasing, but the lethality is.”

The victims: Laurie MacLellan

Early Thursday morning, police say MacLellan was stabbed to death by her partner, Robert Eastman, 54, at their home on Hanover Street in Manchester.

Police responded to the home to perform a wellness check and found MacLellan deceased with multiple stab wounds to the face and the abdomen, according to court documents.

Eastman was arrested and charged with second-degree murder for recklessly causing the death of MacLellan under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life.

He has a criminal history dating back to 1992 that includes driving under the influence, drug charges, theft, escape from prison and domestic violence toward MacLellan.

In 2019, he was arrested for violating a domestic violence protection order for MacLellan, who told police that she still wanted to have contact with him. A few months later, they were back together.

Gina Maiorano

Following a domestic violence incident in the parking lot of a gas station in January, Thomas Hanley, 30, of Henniker, was arrested and charged with four counts of domestic assault for pushing, berating and forcing Maiorano into a car they were driving, according to court documents.

As a result, a domestic violence protection order was filed against Hanley, who violated it in the following days when he sent Maiorano a picture of himself holding a gun and called her several times, according to court documents.

After Hanley’s arrest, Maiorano – a mother of two – relocated to Connecticut and lived with her brother before going to rehab.

Five months later, on June 5, Maiorano was found dead on the side of the highway in Hopkinton. Hanley told police she jumped out of the car. Maiorano died from blunt force trauma to the head and had a fractured right wrist, a fractured right shoulder and road rash over the majority of her body. Hanley never stopped because he was high on meth, he told his father.

Hanley was charged with conduct after an accident, a felony, and breach of bail and stalking, misdemeanors. Police have not charged him with causing her death.

The couple had a lengthy history of domestic violence and DCYF involvement in both New Hampshire and Connecticut, where Maiorano lived before moving to New Hampshire.

Nicole Hughes

On June 3, police said Hughes and her 18-month-old daughter, Ariella Bell, were shot to death in their Elkins Street home in Franklin by her boyfriend Jamie Bell, who later took his own life. Hughes’ other child, a 5-year-old daughter, sustained non-life-threatening injuries as a result of the shooting.

An acquaintance said that Bell, who has a history of violent crime and was released on parole in 2020, was using methamphetamine and anabolic steroids at the time of the shooting. He has previously been convicted of domestic assault for choking his partner, punching her in the head and throwing her on the floor. He was sent back to prison in 2018 for being a felon in possession of deadly weapons.

Following a six-hour manhunt after the murders, Bell was found deceased on the bank of the Merrimack River in the area of River Street in Franklin. According to the autopsy, he died of a self-inflicted wound to the neck.

“We are always shocked when these homicides happen in rapid succession, and more than half of them are a direct result of someone being murdered by the person that is supposed to love them the most,” Grady Sexton said.

Red flags

The crisis centers offer crisis services, emergency sheltering, court advocacy, hospital accompaniment, assistance with safety planning, referrals, community resources, outreach and education. None of the victims sought services through the coalition.

In each case, the abusers were arrested in the past for various crimes, including domestic violence and assault.

Based on research and evidence collected over the last 20 years, their deaths could have been prevented, Grady Sexton said. But victims are often too afraid to leave their abusers or believe they are too dependent on their abusers to make it on their own.

“Some of the red flags that we have seen in all three of these cases are non-fatal strangulation, when a child is present in the home that is not the offspring of the abuser, ownership or use of a firearm, previous threats of suicide and animal abuse,” Grady Sexton said. “We also know that in approximately 70% of cases where there has been a homicide in a domestic violence case, it’s been preceded by a physical assault.”

Between 2018 and 2019, the state saw a significant increase in domestic violence homicides committed by an intimate partner as compared to previous years and, in all cases, the victims were women. More than 50% of the state’s homicides are a direct result of domestic violence.

Combined with the presence of substance abuse or mental health challenges, domestic violence often turns fatal. Neither drug use nor untreated mental health has been proven to cause violence, just exacerbate it, Grady Sexton continued.

“There aren’t ongoing threats of abuse and dynamics of control just because you’re using a substance or you have a mental health challenge,” she said. “These are patterns and behaviors people use throughout their lifetime to manipulate, isolate and control their victims prior to the use of substances and prior to any sort of mental health crisis.”

Still, the increasing use of substances in the state is likely to increase the severity of domestic abuse.

Training and education

As part of lethality training for law enforcement and medical personnel, they are taught to understand the risk factors and identify red flags that carry the greatest risk in trying to remove the victim from the home and their abuser.

“Ultimately, what we need to do is take these tools we now have and create a holistic approach to the epidemic of domestic violence and hold the offender accountable,” Grady Sexton said. “We could build 10 more shelters in the state for transitional units, but what are we doing to hold the abuser accountable?”

Though law enforcement and medical personnel are following the protocols to protect victims on scene, bail commissioners and judges fall short when it comes time for sentencing. Bail commissioners might not have all of the relevant information and judges should be looking at domestic violence as a different crime than most, Grady Sexton said.

“A person in a bar fight does not carry the same risk of lethality as someone who assaults or punches their partner in the face at home,” Grady Sexton said.

Though the state has strong laws in place to protect victims of domestic violence, compliance checks are not required once a protective order or a restraining order is issued. In all circumstances, protective orders require the defendant to surrender their firearms, but the court does not check the household for compliance.

“A firearm in possession of an abuser means that they are far more likely to use that weapon on someone in the household, and that increases the lethality tremendously,” Grady Sexton said.

Every time a domestic violence homicide occurs, calls at crisis centers throughout New Hampshire increase, both from survivors themselves who are reassessing their relationships or friends and family members who want to help the victim.

“When they read stories like these, they become even more afraid of whether or not that could be them in the next headline,” Grady Sexton said. “But one of the biggest reasons women with children won’t leave is because they can’t protect their child.”

Educating themselves by calling a crisis center, working out a plan to leave and gathering support could save a life.

“Leaving isn’t an event, it’s a process, and the crisis center has specific relationships with members of the community that will find a way if someone needs to leave their home; they will not be without a place to sleep,” Grady Sexton said. “Survivors need to know there are specific circumstances for them, they are not alone, there are options, there are people that will help and there is a way out.”

To reach help, call 1-866-644-3574 or go online at www.nhcadsv.org.

]]>