Strangulation is a leading sign of escalating violence in a relationship, researchers and law enforcement say.
Strangulation also increases the victim’s chances of facing a violent death.
In fact, those who have survived a strangulation are 750% more likely to be subsequently killed by their attacker, according to the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention .
Here’s a look at several of the most prominent Summit County homicides that involved strangulation:
Margaret “Meg” Purk
Purk, 24, who was nine months pregnant, was found hanging from a rope from a second-floor railing in her Akron apartment in 1985. Her death was ruled a suicide, but investigators later exhumed her body and concluded she died of ligature strangulation, and the cause of death was homicide. Scott Purk, Meg’s husband, was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison with possible parole after 18 years.
Charlene Puffenbarger
Puffenbarger, 26, was found dead in her Twinsburg Township home in 1992. She had been beaten, strangled and suffocated. Her two sons, Dustin and Derrek, ages 3 and 2, were home but were unharmed. Willard McCarley was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to life in prison with possible parole after 20 years in 2017 in his third trial. Prosecutors say McCarley killed Puffenbarger to avoid paying child support for their son.