It is a small town where people wave and say hello because they know you by sight and name. On Saturday in Burlington Kentucky, Denise Pauly, 40 would no longer be around to wave at her neighbors. She was not going to pick up her children at her mother’s home after work.
Early on Saturday morning when Denise did not arrive at her place of employment her employer and co-workers panicked. Something was wrong.
The store where she worked contacted the sheriff’s office because Denise’s estranged husband was violent and had been stalking and threatening her life. The call immediately set off a search in this small community. And like so many small town communities across the country they are not trained to properly handle dangerous violent crimes. Many of the small town police departments receive no more than 5 hours of training during their entire career as police offices in the area of preventing intimate partner homicide.
Denise was taken hostage by her husband early that morning where he held her against her will for several hours in the woods. According to a call I received within 24 hours of the incident, police failed to get out of their police cruisers and help Denise Pauly. The witness said they saw officers who just sat in their cars and did nothing to save her. Early Saturday afternoon a shot rang out and Denise was killed instantly. Seconds later another shot went off inside the woods. Dean Pauly was found with a gunshot wound to the head he died the following day.
The children ages 5, 9 and 14 now orphans will not be celebrating the fourth of July holiday with their mother eating hot dogs and potato salad. They will not walk in the town parade carrying flags and dancing to the beat of the marching bands. Instead the children will be attending their mothers wake and funeral.
For the remainder of these children’s lives the 4th of July holiday will arrive like an unwelcomed guest. And maybe when they are old enough to undstand what happened that afternoon someone can explain to the children why the police sat on their respective behinds and did nothing to save their mother.
Early on Saturday morning when Denise did not arrive at her place of employment her employer and co-workers panicked. Something was wrong.
The store where she worked contacted the sheriff’s office because Denise’s estranged husband was violent and had been stalking and threatening her life. The call immediately set off a search in this small community. And like so many small town communities across the country they are not trained to properly handle dangerous violent crimes. Many of the small town police departments receive no more than 5 hours of training during their entire career as police offices in the area of preventing intimate partner homicide.
Denise was taken hostage by her husband early that morning where he held her against her will for several hours in the woods. According to a call I received within 24 hours of the incident, police failed to get out of their police cruisers and help Denise Pauly. The witness said they saw officers who just sat in their cars and did nothing to save her. Early Saturday afternoon a shot rang out and Denise was killed instantly. Seconds later another shot went off inside the woods. Dean Pauly was found with a gunshot wound to the head he died the following day.
The children ages 5, 9 and 14 now orphans will not be celebrating the fourth of July holiday with their mother eating hot dogs and potato salad. They will not walk in the town parade carrying flags and dancing to the beat of the marching bands. Instead the children will be attending their mothers wake and funeral.
For the remainder of these children’s lives the 4th of July holiday will arrive like an unwelcomed guest. And maybe when they are old enough to undstand what happened that afternoon someone can explain to the children why the police sat on their respective behinds and did nothing to save their mother.
