Rhilee Collier: Rest in Peace Baby Girl!

On Sunday, as gunfire erupted from inside a home in EL Cajon, California, an innocent child was forever silenced.

Rhilee Collier, 14 months old, would be discovered in the aftermath of an officer shot, the bullet to his neck caught on film while exchanging gunfire with the child's father from inside the family home. The angry man then shot and killed his mother-in-law and after hours of gunfire, set the home ablaze before he died.

Officers found the child in back of his truck. Her mother, Alyssa, happened to be someplace else at the time of the rampage.

Alyssa filed for divorce on August 17, 2011, just 4 days prior to the shootings. In a text message Alyssa sent to a friend prior she says " I have never been so scared in my life."

The husband, Kevin Collier, had a prior history of violence and angry outbursts, beginning with restraining orders filed in 2003, by his own father and brother.

In court documents Alyssa asked for sole custody and child support. After she filed papers Kevin hacked into her facebook account and made changes to her information and profile.

I would like you to stop for a moment and take your eyes back up to Rhilee's photo. Her silence is the siren we need to change how cases of intimate partner violence that lead to homicide are handled in a court system that is ill equipped to properly address and assist these types of cases in every state across the country.

By the grace of God, Alyssa is alive. What she will endure in the days, months and years ahead, if she survives, will be nothing short of a miracle. The aftermath of the murders or as I call them the "intruder or now permanent guest of darkness" of her thoughts will consume her 24-hours a day. In one day her only child and mother are murdered. As time passes, the wounds to her heart and soul will not likely ever heal. At any age a trauma of this magnitude is far from recoverable and Alyssa will always be known, as though it were etched like a tattoo, as the mother married to the monster that took her entire world. If she remains in the same area, people will whisper when she ventures out in public. Silently pointing fingers, recognizing that it's her or sending texts to friends saying "guess who I just saw?" instead of asking how she is doing and offering words of prayer or encouragement. We are not a society that empathizes well with victims of violent crime and I hope people will cover her like a warm blanket with support and offer hope months, and even years, down the road. She will need it!

Rhilee's short life should be the "siren" in a legal system where divorce, child custody, post decree matters, intimate partner violence and mediation matters are handled with respect to safety issues now surrounding the majority of these cases because a victim wants to end the relationship with a clever, yet extremely dangerous psychopath.

Rhilee Collier's life, for God sake, should hold more importance to the world. Think about it, before she learned but a handful of words, the world let her down. We must not allow her abrupt silence to prevail in cases of intimate partner homicide.

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Susan Murphy Milano is a staff member of the Institute for Relational Harm Reduction and Public Pathology Education. She is a specialist with intimate partner violence prevention strategies and high risk cases and available for personal consultations through the Institute. She is also part of the team at Management Resources Limited of New York.

Susan is the author of "Time's Up: A Guide on How to Leave and Survive Abusive and Stalking Relationships,"Moving out, Moving on, and Defending Out Lives. Susan is the host of The Susan Murphy Milano Show, "Time'sUp!" . She is a regular contributor to the nationally syndicated "The Roth Show" with Dr Laurie Roth and a co-host on Crime Wire.

If you would like to schedule Susan Murphy Milano for interviews, please contact: ImaginePublicity PO BOX 14946 Surfside Beach, SC 29587 Phone: 843.808.0859 email- contact@imaginepublicity.com

Profiling A Psychopath Series Part 1: Drew Peterson

According to the Institute of Relational Harm and Public Psychopathy Education, there are approximately six million men in the United states with psychopathic traits. In my opinion, former Bolingbrook police Sergeant Drew Peterson, awaiting trial for the murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio and with the disappearance of his current wife Stacy Peterson (still missing), each met their fate at the hands of Peterson. With detail and precision luring Stacy and Kathleen into a relationship, the outcome, inevitable harm.

Sandra L. Brown, M.A., Author and CEO of the Institute, a psychotherpist has worked in psychopatholgy for over 20 years.

Within intimate partner violence and homicide we only see the aftermath of the offender's behavior or action; the outcome results in a crime or death, but no one ever really explains and identifies a violent offender within a relationship. Until now. In my opinion the work of Sandra Brown, M.A. and the Institute is the piece of the missing puzzle as it directly relates to psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists.

"Psychopaths are highly pleasure motivated and excesssively seek out what they enjoy. This includes lots of high-status posessions, the need to be constantly entertained and distracted, hyper-sexual, wanting to be dominant with their social circles, and by all means requiring lots of power."

So why have I decided to disect and discuss only one man out of approximately six million in the weeks ahead? Because I am hoping it will assist first responders, prosecutors, social workers and clergy directing the more than six million victims to safety, when they understand to whom a victim of intimate partner violence is joined like super glue at the hip.

Victims of intimate partner violence have been at war for too, long, time's up!

[Susan Murphy Milano is with the Institute for Relational Harm Reduction and Public Pathology Education. She is an expert on intimate partner violence and homicide crimes. For more information visit http://www.saferelationshipsmagazine.com/  She is the author of "Time's Up A Guide on How to Leave and Survive Abusive and Stalking Relationships," available for purchase at the Institute, Amazon.com and wherever books are sold.  Susan is the host of The Susan Murphy Milano Show, "Time's Up!" on Here Women Talk http://www.herewomentalk.com/ and is a regular contributor to the nationally syndicated The Roth Show with Dr. Laurie Roth  http://www.therothshow.com/) ]