TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — In the dark world of domestic violence, strangulation that stops short of death is often a sign of deadlier acts to come. Bruises from strangulation do not always show under white light. Now Tucson Police have a new type of light available to them that can make invisible bruises visible, and strong evidence.
Before Michelle Ohnesorgen Johnson was murdered, the man who killed her, then killed himself was still facing an earlier domestic violence case that charged him with strangling her.
Experts in domestic violence say victims who survive strangulation are seven times more likely to be murdered as domestic violence persists and gets worse.
But strangulation may not leave any marks that would help police build a case.
Now donations from the League of Women Voters and the Erik Hite Foundation have given Tucson Police this device. It uses ultraviolet light to document bruises under the skin.
Sergeant Bill Leonard leads TPD’s Domestic Violence Division.
He says the device can show who’s lying when a victim says they were attacked but the attacker denies it.
“So when we have one person saying that they sustained an injury, and we have equipment that can prove their statement, that would be helpful. And the inverse is also true.”
Anna Harper of Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse says the power of this new evidence tool could drive more successful prosecutions or drive couples to counseling before it’s too late.
An ex-boyfriend killed Susan Stemper’s daughter Marilynn. Susan has worked to fight domestic violence ever since. She says her daughter never shared whether her killer ever strangled her but an earlier boyfriend did.
She says the ability to prove bruises under the skin and use them as evidence could give victims who might have felt hopeless, the confidence that if they press charges the case could succeed— before assault escalates to murder—and she thinks her daughter would feel that way too.
"Anything that they are even considering doing means to me, they care, or they are putting a full effort into hopefully preventing or actually prosecuting these people."
