Domestic Abuse and Stephanie Lewis

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Domestic Violence is more than marital discord. It’s serious and often creates scenarios where a police search for missing spouse or girlfriend, presumed deceased. One such instance is Danielle T. Brown of Leon CO., FL. Her body has yet to be found. Her alleged killer is in jail for torching her car.

Fortunately for Stephanie Lewis of Jackson, TN., the outcome was that her life was spared - barely.

Stephanie Lewis’s estranged husband, Derrick allegedly kidnaped her from The Jackson Clinic Friday, July 2, 2010. Her Country’s Independence weekend celebration wasn’t spent enjoying good food and setting off fireworks with friends and family. She had fireworks of her own to deal with; mainly, surviving hours of horror in a hot closet of a vacant home with no electricity while she was hogtied and gagged.

Of course they looked at Derrick first as the POI because back in April of 2010 he was alleged to have attacked Stephanie, have charges brought against him and then bond out of jail.

When the police located Derrick Friday night he ran and they gave a chase on foot; after capture and during questioning he told them where they could find Stephanie. They di d find Stephanie around 2:00 Saturday morning at the location he advised she'd be, but she was dehydrated from spending hours in the dark hot closet, without water. We are yet to discover what else Derrick Lewis put her through in the hours before LE took him in for questioning.

Fortunately, the previous bond has been revoked; a bond of 500,000 has been set with the aggravating kidnaping charges though. Eluding a police officer should be added to those charges, if they haven’t already. And I feel he shouldn’t be allowed to bond out, to me he’s a flight risk since he ran from LE when they located him; more important, to me, he is a risk to Stephanie’s safety.

Sadly, prison time (if a true bill is found by the grand jury and in trial he is found guilty on all charges) will not be long enough, he won’t spend that many years locked behind bars. Not only will the sentence he’s given not punishment enough, it’s also possible Stephanie will not be advised of his release when his sentence in over or he is paroled. Nor will it mean he won’t stew while locked up and continue blame Stephanie for his faults.

Stephanie could do well to check out Susan Murphy Milano’s book, ‘Time’s Up’- A Guide How to Escape Abusive and Stalking Relationships. Although LE knows the history of Derrick Lewis’s abusive past - again sadly,  it doesn’t mean they could find anything substantial should Stephanie go missing in the future and become another of the many unfound missing persons like Danielle Brown.