Hometown Horror

Jane Velez Mitchell calls it the war against women. Nancy Grace spotlights the missing, and presumed murdered, woman or girl du jour.

All violence is condemnable, but is there anything comparable to the sheer quantity of women killed in domestic violence situations?

The latest macabre example began as a lady-stuffed-in-suitcase whodunit this weekend in my hometown of eight years, Buena Park, California. An old fellow collecting cans for recycling came across a two foot by three foot carry-on style suitcase in a dumpster that contained the well preserved body of an "extremely small" female.

The woman, quickly identified by all the news media as "former swimsuit model" 28-year-old Jasmine Fiore, was folded into the bag and left like yesterday's trash in an alley. Police estimated she had been strangled just hours before being found.

Buena Park is not your typical dumping site. It is located along the Santa Ana Freeway (5 Freeway) adjacent to Anaheim, home to Disneyland and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I could watch the fireworks from the Mouse Park every night.

Buena Park has its own "E-Zone" entertainment district along Beach Boulevard, comprised primarily of Knott's Berry Farm and the Medieval Times dinner show, with past attractions like Ripley's Odditorium and Movieland Wax Museum.

The "person of interest," often the line before suspect, is Jasmine's former husband of a few months, reality TV contestant Ryan Alexander Jenkins, from Alberta, Canada. He appeared as one of the millionaire suitors on the hastily canceled, lowest-brow VH1 show, "Megan Wants a Millionaire."

I caught one episode of MWAM just long enough to see the smarmy Jenkins purr to Megan Hauserman that she would love Canadian bacon. Megan seemed charmed by the carnivore-pusher. She described Jenkins as a "really nice guy" who is "very charming, very educated and mature" with a "really positive attitude."

He's now missing and presumed fled.

Fiore and Jenkins had married in March and annulled their marriage in May. At some point before their Las Vegas nuptials, Jenkins did the taping for VH1. The couple apparently reconciled after the break-up. They were last seen together Friday night at a poker game in San Diego. Traveling north along the 5 Freeway, POI Jenkins may have randomly chosen Buena Park as a place to unload his baggage.

This particular story will linger in the news biz. It has all the "violtainment" elements like swimsuit model, reality TV, nude blonde in suitcase that pull in eyeballs, including my sensationalism-soaked peepers.

Kevin Roderick of LA Observed makes a good point that it's easy to turn Fiore's murder into pulp nonfiction: http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/08/murder_just_another_chanc.php

But this isn't just a Nielsen-pumping murder story.

The enduring landscape issue is violence against women. In 2004 Amnesty International added a global Stop Violence Against Women Campaign to its human rights agenda. http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/stop-violence-against-women-svaw/page.do?id=1108417

Jasmine Fiore is now a pearl on a strand of broken and bruised bodies that stretches just like the 5 freeway from Los Angeles to Darfur. We women often judge our men by how they treat their mothers. We judge our culture by how it treats its women. Why isn't that newsworthy?

Follow Nancy Snow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/drpersuasion

Comments

[Phenlandia]

Dozens of peer reviewed studies going all the way back to the 1970's, including the studies most often cited by feminist organizations, have shown and continue to show that men in heterosexual partnerships are either as likely or slightly more likely to be victims of domestic abuse than women, up to twice as likely to be attacked with a weapon, and up to three times more likely to suffer life-threatening injury or death. The sensational image of women as helpless punching bags is a hyper-emotional response to popular folklore and social archetypes that is in no way based on scientific data or evidence. Women do NOT have the market on victimization, and I think that stressing the gender of the victim this way only reinforces irrational, negative stereotypes of both men and women. The problem is violence, not the gender of the person getting hurt.

[jalowe1957]

Domestic violence manifests itself in so many ways. It's not just the physical violence that puts one in harm's way and at worse, at death's doorway. There's verbal and psychological abuse, where the abuser's words and vocal tone are abusive. And there's economic abuse, where the abuser tries to micromanage the family finances and harasses the victim at work to where one is driven away from one's job.

And the economic abuse can manifest itself when the abuser initiates a malicious smear campaign intended to inflict further economic and professional injuries onto the victim.

Phenlandia, you are correct in your assertion that men are as likely to become victims of domestic violence as women, that women do not hold a monopoly on victimization, and that stressing the victim's gender only serves to reinforce irrational, negative sexual stereotypes, and is an insult to victims regardless of their gender or even their ethnicity or sexual orientation.

As you state it, the problem is violence, not the victim's gender.

[lletaa]

Men just as or more likely to suffer life threatening injury or death in domestic violence cases. Im sorry but that sounds crazy. Men are the biggest trouble makers around commiting most of the major crimes and violence in this country. You say men are picked on and battered by their wives as much as wives are battered by husbands. No way jose! Violence is the problem but men are ten times more likely to cause violence then women.

[MikeLawson]

People who commit crimes like this and are convicted beyond a reasonable doubt, these are people the death penalty is meant for, and even as a liberal Democrat I have no problem with putting a monster to death who would do something so horrific to a woman like removing her teeth and fingers, dismembering her and stuffing her into a suitcase. If there is no doubt whatsoever as to this man's guilt, and given the extremes he's gone to run I'd say there is likely going to be no doubt, I hope the State of California is swift with its judgment.

[oregonbird]

Congratulations! You didn't bother to mention the fact that your governor has just terminated ALL funding for hotlines and shelters for women in dangerous domestic situations. Which most people would consider an important point, given the subject. Must have slipped your writerly mind, huh?

And since I lived in OC for 30 years, may I just mention that NOBODY who lives in SoCal EVER calls it the Mouse Park. Like, never, ever.

[PunKinPai]

Why the crappy, insulting tone? Having a bad day? Schwarzenegger's budget cuts weren't the point, so not mentioning them isn't some eggregious fault. Hotlines and shelters weren't the only drastic cuts made to help balance our state'sbudget. Fire, police, assistance to the elderly and children...well, everything except the governor's and legislature's salaries...have been cut to the bone.

She never said Mouse Park was an official nickname. It's obviously a reference to Disneyland, and you obviously got that reference, so why be petty? The D-Land employees I've known call it Disneyland, the Tragic Kingdom. Everybody's entitled to coin their own pet names if they choose.

[LadyR]

Too true.

[Susan Fredricks]

It is so true that the war of violence against women rages on, and approximately 1.3 million women are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States. And now Schwarzenegger eliminated the California's Public Health Department's Domestic Violence Program last week. The elimination cut $20.4 million in funding to 94 domestic violence shelters in California, forcing at least three to close.
The cutting of these funding projects leaves a clear message that our government still does not take domestic and intimate violence seriously at any level. Since the laws aren't there to protect women, then we need to start protecting ourselves against those who threaten our safety. At the very least, women's self defense classes should be subsidized so that we have a fighting chance against predators. Personal protection devices such as TASERs, pepper spray, mace and stun guns should be part of a woman's every day accessory. There are a wide variety of home safety equipment available that will protect the home from invasions and break-ins from estranged domestic/intimate partners or other predators. Women should not have to live in fear any longer, and we need to educate ourselves on the resources and products available that will ultimately safe our lives.
Susan Fredricks is co-founder of www.stingergirlz.com which is an eCommerce website dedicated to helping empower women to stay protected and one of the largest San Diego suppliers of personal and home safety products.