California’s Senate Bill 989 tackles hidden homicides: Implications for law enforcement

On Monday, August 26, 2024, my colleagues and I finally received a long-anticipated email from Casey Gwinn, the president of Alliance for Hope International, a nonprofit organization that assists victims of domestic violence. Gwinn’s email read in part:

“Today, we made history, friends. We passed Joanna’s Law on the floor of the California State Assembly, and it is now heading to the governor’s desk on a bipartisan, unanimous vote. This is our first bill to ever address the issues we are finding and battling in hidden homicides across the United States.”

Gwinn’s email references Senate Bill 989, which we call “Joanna’s Law” in memory of Joanna Hunter. Research by the alliance, Gwinn noted, suggests there may be over 1,000 “hidden homicides” like Hunter’s every year in the U.S.

Background

In February 2023 I wrote an article about the predictors of domestic violence-related staged suicide scenes, otherwise known as hidden homicides. [1] The scenario in that article was based on Hunter’s real-life case. It asked us to consider that a husband, who found his wife deceased by apparent hanging, had a documented history of domestic violence against her. This history included, among other things, access to a gun, strangulation, threats of suicide, jealousy and controlling behavior. These are all high-risk factors in the 20-item Danger Assessment tool developed by intimate-partner violence expert Jacquelyn Campbell, Ph.D. [2]

Based on a posthumous application of the Danger Assessment tool, I identified the risk factors that existed at the time of Joanna Hunter’s death, revealing that she was at extreme risk of serious injury or death at the hands of her husband.

Joanna’s story

Joanna Hunter was a young woman who had disclosed to her mother (as well as local law enforcement) that her husband, Mark Lewis, had been severely abusing her for years. She’d filed reports with local law enforcement, and Mark Lewis had been arrested and served time in jail for abusing Joanna. She eventually obtained restraining orders against him.

In October 2011 Mark Lewis reported he found his wife hanging by a bathrobe belt suspended from a clothes rod in a closet of their home. His alibi to the responding deputy could have well been considered suspicious. It implied, in part, that he had been playing basketball in front of their home for upward of eight hours before finding Joanna deceased.

Mark Lewis did not try to cut Joanna loose. He did not render first aid. He did not call 911. He had a cell phone but decided to call his friend instead — the same friend with whom he’d allegedly been playing basketball outside his home. He told his friend to call 911.

The responding deputy found what he determined to be a suicide note — something to the effect of “take care of the dogs.” Joanna’s mother, Patricia Hunter, maintains this was not a suicide note at all but a note telling Mark to take care of the dogs because Joanna was, once again, planning to leave her abusive husband. She could not take the dogs home because her father had severe asthma. The note was found in an open suitcase.

Patricia Hunter would have been happy to clarify for the responding deputy the nature and extent of Mark’s abuse toward Joanna — i.e., the emergency room visits, the bruises and scars, the threats to Joanna and her family, the extreme jealousy and obsessive control, the police reports, the restraining orders, etc. It wasn’t a hunch that Mark Lewis was abusive. Patricia had copious amounts of evidence.

Sadly, however, Patricia was never contacted by the responding deputy or anyone else in the sheriff’s office. She was not even aware her daughter had died until the next day when a friend of Mark’s came to the elementary school where she was teaching and told Patricia her daughter was dead. Patricia was devastated. She fell to the floor and screamed, “What did he do to her?” Patricia did not suspect that any accident had taken her daughter’s life. She believed instantly that Mark Lewis had something to do with it.

Notwithstanding Lewis’ criminal history of abuse and his perhaps questionable alibi, the case was determined by the responding patrol deputy to be a suicide with no evidence of foul play. Detectives were never summoned for a more thorough investigation. Patricia was never contacted for a statement. No one looked for Joanna’s cell phone, which Patricia believes may have provided evidence of continuing abuse, threats, or even intentions of leaving her abusive husband. No search warrants were requested, and only a few other people were interviewed, all of whom were associates of Mark Lewis.

As soon as she could, Patricia arranged to speak with the responding deputy. She desperately wished to tell her side of the story — a story she believed showed evidence of foul play the responding deputy overlooked. That meeting went nowhere. Patricia came away with the clear impression the responding deputy had little interest in anything she had to say. She pleaded with the sheriff’s office to consider her evidence. She asked them to conduct a thorough investigation. They would not budge. No investigation and no autopsy would be conducted.

Was Mark Lewis really capable of killing Joanna? Patricia believed he was. In fact, she warned Joanna not to go back to him the last time she’d left. But Joanna did go back, against her mother’s warning, and one year later was dead.

Then, as fast as it was over, Mark Lewis was dating again. In 2014, when that girlfriend broke up with him, he hired three thugs to firebomb her residence. He eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years in prison for stalking and arson. [3]

Patricia went back to the sheriff’s office again. She begged them to take a closer look at Lewis’ new criminal sentence for stalking and arson, coupled with his previous criminal record of domestic violence against Joanna. Certainly, she said, this must suggest foul play in Joanna’s death. She asked once again for a real investigation — would they at least consider changing the cause and manner of death to “undetermined”?

Sadly, what little investigation the sheriff’s office did into Joanna’s death in 2014 (after the firebombing), went nowhere. In my opinion — and I say this with discomfort as one who has conducted many criminal investigations — their efforts fell far short of an appropriate investigation under the circumstances. To local law enforcement, Joanna’s death was a suicide, period. The cause and manner of death would remain the same.

A grieving mother’s journey

Lewis began his prison sentence for stalking and arson in 2015. Patricia continued making requests for any and all documents she could get her hands on: city police reports, county sheriff’s reports, photos of the death scene, coroner’s reports and photos, etc. She collected articles and emails. Patricia would eventually find out she was not able to get everything she requested because she was not considered next of kin. Lewis held that distinction.

She was told at times that certain requested documents did not exist, then later that they did. Some of her requests were delayed for months. She was promised an internal assessment of the case would be conducted, then crickets — nothing. No subsequent contact or notice of any follow-up was ever provided. The emotional incongruence between her personal experience and the sheriff’s slogan, “Dedicated to community service,” was gut-wrenching. Patricia felt misdirected and dismissed so many times over the years that she wanted to give up. She eventually came to believe this was exactly what the sheriff’s office wanted: for her to give up and go away. She still believes that to this day.

In 2022 Patricia came to the Sacramento Regional Family Justice Center (SRFJC) seeking counseling and support. She knew that Joanna would never take her own life and believed the evidence of foul play was overwhelming, but she was up against a system that would not budge. Maybe the SRFJC, which serves victims of domestic violence, could help. This is where I met Patricia. I am her counselor and a regional expert witness in domestic violence. I am a 35-year veteran of local law enforcement. Our SRFJC executive director, Faith Whitmore, and deputy director, Joyce Bilyeu, both supported my work with Patricia. We are a team.

I took great interest in what Patricia had to say. Our sessions quickly became more than just support. I read binders of emails and reports. I looked at everything she had. I wrote up my own report listing evidence of foul play I believe existed at the time of Joanna’s death. I completed a timeline of all the requests by Patricia for reports and photos along with the respective responses by the sheriff’s office, a timeline that spanned over a decade. Joyce and I helped Patricia petition the sheriff’s office for documents they had yet to release. To our surprise, we became aware of even more documents Patricia never knew existed.

Joyce and I eventually went to Casey Gwinn and his associate Gael Strack, with whom he’d founded the Family Justice Center Alliance, for help. They created the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention and the Alliance for Hope International. They provide training around the country on hidden homicides, how to recognize them and what to do about them. By this time we had access to the alliance’s “10 red flags” that, when present, suggest a staged suicide scene. In our study of Joanna’s case, we discovered all 10 were present:

1. The person died prematurely or in an untimely manner.
2. The death scene appeared to result from a suicide or accident.
3. One partner wanted to end the relationship.
4. There was a history of being victimized by domestic violence that included coercive control.
5. The person was found dead in a home or place of residence.
6. The person was found by a current or previous partner.
7. There was a history of being victimized by domestic violence that included strangulation or suffocation.
8. The current or previous partner of the person who died or their child was the last to see the person alive.
9. The partner had control of the scene before law enforcement arrived.
10. The body of the person was moved, or the scene or other evidence was altered in some way.

In 2023 the sheriff’s office hired Dr. Bill Smock to conduct a forensic review of Joanna’s death. Smock is a nationally recognized expert in the field of strangulation investigation. His findings concluded that Joanna’s death was a homicide. He also pointed to clear investigative deficiencies in the handling of Joanna’s case. When she heard this news, Patricia cupped her face and wept.

The sheriff’s office then hired Dr. Brian Lee Peterson, a forensic pathologist, to provide yet another evaluation. Peterson concluded Joanna’s death was a suicide — case closed. Patricia wept again.

California’s Senate Bill 989

In addition to obtaining documents relating to Joanna’s death, one of the things Patricia hoped for, after years of grief and dismissal, was something to prevent this from happening again — a law, perhaps, or policy or legislation requiring law enforcement to be trained in how to identify staged suicide scenes and investigate hidden homicides. While we know the majority of responding officers are thorough in their preliminary investigations, we also know cases like Joanna’s sometimes fall through the cracks. In fact, hidden homicides may be more prevalent than we think. [4]

A senate bill was outside my scope of experience, but it was not outside the scope and practice for Gwinn and Strack. Together they accepted the challenge of justice for Joanna. They worked for the next two years with state senators Angelique Ashby and Susan Rubio. Strack did the research, and Gwinn wrote the initial senate bill narrative. Patricia went to every hearing along the way.

SB 989 will give family members recourse to obtain records and request an independent investigation. It means Patricia will be able to obtain all the documents and photos for us to thoroughly review Joanna’s case. We are still fighting to have the manner and cause of death changed to undetermined.

SB 989 helps law enforcement understand how to identify staged suicide scenes by creating a new penal code section that not only provides the respective legislative intent, but requires, in part, officers to try to determine whether the decedent had an identifiable history of domestic violence and interview family members regarding whether the decedent had been victimized by domestic violence. This legislation also recognizes the 10 red flags suggestive of a staged suicide scene. SB 989 requires that our statewide law enforcement training institute (Cal POST) begin reasonable efforts to train officers, both in service and at the academy level.

The first in the nation to follow federal law

California’s Senate Bill 989 is the first such bill in the nation to provide recourse for families who have lost loved ones in cases like Patricia Hunter’s. Federal Public Law 117–164, otherwise known as the Homicide Victim’s Families’ Rights Act of 2021, was a step in the right direction but only applies to federal crimes, not to the states. [5] It is our heartfelt wish that SB 989 becomes a template for the rest of the nation. The Alliance for Hope International is ready and willing to provide training and support in this pursuit.

According to Gwinn, “Most of these killers in hidden homicides are stranglers, so we have been pulled into these staged crime scene cases because of our expertise in strangulation. It should be no surprise the killers in these cases are stranglers. Stranglers are the most dangerous men on the planet. They are the most likely to kill a police officer, most likely to kill a woman in an abusive relationship and most likely to stage a murder to look like a suicide or an accidental death.”

Said Patricia Hunter, “I would like the officers to know that it is their obligation, their moral and legal duty, to check for a history of domestic violence when arriving upon the scene of a person who dies a sudden, untimely death. If there is a history of domestic violence, they must proceed as if it is a possible homicide. Imagine if it was your daughter, your sister, your friend.”

Four takeaways from Joann’s law

Responding to suicides with a vigilant eye can save lives and uncover hidden crimes. Here are four takeaways for investigators from Joanna’s law:

1. When responding to the scene of a suicide, please look for any connection to domestic violence, past or present. Know the 10 red flags suggestive of a staged suicide scene. When suspicion arises, secure the scene and call detectives to conduct a thorough investigation.
2. Contact the Alliance for Hope International and review its training on how to identify hidden homicides. Expand the discussion about staged suicide scenes and hidden homicides among law enforcement professionals.
3. In other states, please advocate for legislation that expands the rights of parents to obtain documents and request a second opinion. Please consider and support legislation that mirrors California’s SB 989.
4. Above all, please stay safe. If victims of domestic violence are at risk of severe injury or death, then so, by extension, are responding officers.

In memory of Joanna Hunter: October 27, 1974 – October 6, 2011

References

1. Cropp. D. (February 2023.) What are the predictors of staged suicide scenes in domestic violence cases? Police1.

2. Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. (June 2011.) Domestic violence risk measurement tool now online.

3. KCRA3. (February 2015.) Former Vacaville pastor sentenced for arson, stalking ex.

4. Kippert A. (Jul 09, 2024.) Hidden Homicides Bill Addresses Abusers Who Cover Up Murder

5. Homicide Victims’ Families’ Rights Act of 2021. Congress.gov. August 2022.