Every 9 Seconds…
Since the moment that we began on the Blanchard case Mad Ginger Entertainment (MGE) has been focused on social change. We believe our systems are terribly broken and it is our mission to help fix and renew these systems. Our beloved late Christina was a champion for these causes. We strongly feel she is still leading the charge.
We met Anne (name changed for safety) in 2017 when she applied as a psychology student to work on our investigative team dealing with the Gypsy Rose Blanchard case unfolding in her hometown. It became clear rather quickly that something terrible was happening in her personal life.
In 2018 Anne began trying to escape her husband and save the lives of her and her children but Law Enforcement in Springfield MO has not helped her. She and several witnesses have made numerous 911 calls, sent letters to the governor, contacted Dan Patterson the DA, and called DSS over and over. All it has gotten her is more abuse from the person she has been trying to report. In 2021 Anne filed for two restraining orders back-to-back. Once on Thursday and it was denied, again on Friday and it was denied, and Saturday she ended up in the hospital from a suspected poisoning. The hospital released her while she was still out of her mind and suffering affects from whatever had been given to her and never once questioned the suspect.
In September of 2022 Anne showed up on Fancy’s doorstep weighing in at 77 lbs., dazed, confused, and barely alive. She fled the state after she suspected again that her husband was trying to kill her. Due to the way Anne was treated in her state she had no choice but to leave her two children behind so she could be alive to fight for them. She had no money, no clothes, no social security card, and no birth certificate because her abuser refused to allow her to take anything, including her son.
Anne’s story will be featured in our true crime show on The GWN. Conversations with a Captive- The Psychological Murder of Anne Smith will provide a heavy hitting, real-time investigation to unfold what happened to Anne and her children and how the system failed them epically. Our first episode will premiere at our Friday night cocktail party, June 9, 2023, as well as live on our Network broadcasted to Roku, Amazon Fire Tv, Apple Tv, Smart Tv and Android Tv, and mobile apps at 8/9PM CST on Wednesday’s.
While Anne’s story may seem fantastical or unbelievable it honestly is not that rare. Alarming statistics indicate that, as you read this short sentence, a woman has become the victim of assault, most likely by someone they know. According to the Partnership Against Domestic Violence, every 9 seconds, another woman in the U.S. is beaten.
Every nine seconds.
One in four women in the U.S. will be targeted by an abusive partner in their lifetime. Female victims most commonly first experience domestic violence between the ages of 18–24 (38.6%), followed by age 11–17 (22.4%), age 35–44 (6.8%) and age 45+ (2.5%). Almost one out of five or 16.3% of murder victims in the U.S. were killed by an intimate partner; women account for two out of three murder victims killed by an intimate partner.
I recently told an officer working or rather not working on Anne’s case that she could have at any time been one of these statistics.
We all watched as Gabby Petito was put in the back of a police vehicle and 3 days later, she was dead. This same thing happened to Anne. She was told by two officers that she could either get back in the car with her children and abuser, go to a motel with no money, or identification, or go to jail. The only difference is that somehow by the grace of God, Anne survived.
Our mission is to ensure there are more Anne’s and less Gabby’s.
Stop the Cycle of Abuse Program is raising funds in several communities to provide in-field training to first responders, detectives, social workers, hospital staff, teachers, and others who come in contact with victims of Intimate Partner Violence. We are working with professionals in the fields of psychology, education, medicine and investigations to develop a training program that educates on the realities of domestic violence situations, from the people who know it best, the SURVIVORS.
We also strive to impact the lives of survivors by assisting them once they leave these situations. Often these women have no money, no resources, are financially ruined, and many times have no identification. This was something I witnessed while helping Anne. She had nothing when she arrived here. She had no identification, no documents, and was in financial ruin. We couldn’t even get her a driver’s license without sending off for her birth certificate. Getting a car was even more of a shock.
Here was a woman with a job, a college degree, a home and yet even the buy here pay here lots wouldn’t finance her because her credit report was insane. It was riddled with erroneous accounts, repossessions, evictions and cards all in her name that she had no idea existed. She had to file a claim with the IRS to get a new social. It was a nightmare I had truly never witnessed. I just couldn’t understand how a person who professed such love for someone could absolutely do everything in their power to ruin that same person. Anne’s ex had isolated her from everyone, including her own family. He had convinced social workers, law enforcement, judges and more that Anne was crazy. It is 100 percent total annihilation.
There is actually a term for this, Psychological Murder. Psychological Murder is the complete dismantling of a person’s life without actually murdering them, however generally murder is the ultimate end game. However, when the narcopath comes to this point they have usually created such a story that nobody questions if the victim ends up missing or dead. It generally is made to look like they ran off or they committed suicide. The long game is strong with these abusers.
Psychological Murder is hard to prove. The abuser is so good at making the victim look and feel crazy that they lay out the evidence piece by piece and no bats an eye. Usually there is no trail of evidence to the abuse but a huge trail to all the “insane” things the victim has done. Alienation from family and friends is common. So, even if the victim attempts to escape, they have no support system. The children in these situations are used as weapons.
Studies show that the children who are exposed to Intimate Partner Violence for prolonged periods of time go on to repeat the cycle. Male children are more likely to become abusers themselves after years of being the protector, they become desensitized to the behaviors they once saw as horrific. Female children are more likely to become victims as teens and adults. This is why Stop the Cycle Of Abuse Program wants to educate teens on what the warning signs are for this type of relationship.
Your donations help us to fund all these initiatives. To help our mission please visit and share our website https://givebutter.com/scoap. Join us at one of our events, or volunteer to help either at an event or become part of our Justice Warrior Belle of the Ball Ambassador Program.
