A memorial in the parking lot of the Hardin County Justice Center, where Erica Riley and her mother Janet Rylee were killed on their way to a domestic violence hearing. Erica Riley was seeking protection from the man who shot them and later killed himself. The photo was taken Sept. 22, 2024 in Elizabethtown. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)
If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs .
This story also discusses suicide. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.
Georgia Hensley feels like she’s been “screaming in a padded room” for too long about gaps in the way Kentucky protects survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence .
Now that two women are dead in her town, “suddenly there’s two or three people at the tiny window on the door” listening to those concerns, said Hensley, the CEO of SpringHaven , which helps survivors of intimate partner violence in Kentucky’s Lincoln Trail District.