Chicagoans got a taste of the macabre when a story broke last November of the discovery of the dead body of a woman found next to her own severed foot at the bottom of a South Loop stairwell.

But the story behind the grisly finding was all too familiar a tragedy. The dead woman was Caitlin Tracey, 36, who had reported multiple incidents of abuse against her husband. Though she lived in New Buffalo, Michigan, her body was found in the Chicago building where her husband lived. He was named as a suspect in Tracey’s death, according to reports.

Domestic violence in and around Chicago began climbing in 2019, and incidents have spiked yet again to start 2025.

In January, 41-year-old Tanisha Weeks was shot and killed in front of her 7-year-old daughter in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. The shooter, who also killed himself, was her 35-year-old ex-boyfriend, who had been served orders of protection not long before the killing.

Also in January, mother of three Edith Castrejon was shot and killed in her Portage Park home. She was five months’ pregnant. Doctors tried to save her infant son, but the child died a week later. Robert Pasco III, the father of Castrejon’s children, has been charged in connection with the deaths.

Later in January, a judge granted Castrejon’s mother — the guardian of the couple’s surviving children — an order of protection against Pasco, according to Tribune reporting. In an affidavit supporting the petition for the order, Castrejon’s mother said her oldest grandson had “informed (her) that he had seen mommy on the floor and that daddy is bad.”

Abusers don’t just stop at their partner — often they attack others in the family, as was the case when 11-year-old Jayden Perkins was slain in March 2024 trying to defend his pregnant mother in their Edgewater home against an abusive ex-partner against whom she’d filed for an order of protection. The case brought to light major issues with the state’s parole system and led to resignations from the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. Recently, Jayden’s mother, Laterria Smith, who was injured in the attack, sued the board and other agencies in the tragedy.

As Chicago Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling said after Jayden’s death, “We cannot wait until tragedy happens to decide we’re going to do something about it.”

We agree. These victims and others who have lost their lives to domestic violence deserve our attention as this problem grows.

Of course, this isn’t just a Chicago problem. The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence reported a 110% increase in deaths caused by domestic violence across Illinois from 2022 to 2023.

One of the methods of protection for women who fear physical harm from an abuser is to file for an order of protection. But that doesn’t help much if abusers aren’t served with the papers. Reporting from CBS-Ch. 2 Chicago showed that in situations where women had obtained protective orders between 2021 and 2023, the Cook County sheriff’s office actually served the alleged abusers in only 25% of the cases.

Improving enforcement of orders of protection is an important step, but more is needed — and it won’t be an easy or quick fix. Beyond law enforcement, victims of abuse need physical sanctuary.

“Victims and survivors need access to emergency services and shelter,” Amanda Pyron, executive director of The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence, told us. “When people have the resources to flee, they can flee. When they have shelter beds, they go there.”

Right now, the city partners with providers to offer support services and shelter, but the city has far fewer beds than other major cities — and not enough space to meet the needs of people at risk.

For roughly half of last year, Pyron, whose organization operates the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline, said the city had to turn away requests for shelter because they had no available beds in Cook County. They had to send people as far as Aurora and Kankakee for shelter.

Chicago has 185 shelter beds. New York has 3,000. Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, has 336 beds. While Chicago experienced 59 domestic-violence homicides in 2023, New York had 23 and Harris County had 38. Pyron points to these numbers as evidence that providing sanctuary for victims works.

“If you look at neighborhoods where domestic violence homicides are highest, you’ll see a lack of visible domestic violence services,” she said. “These incidents are lowest where people have physical, accessible services.”

More shelter and services for victims is a priority. Failure to invest in protecting the vulnerable likely means the current awful trends will continue. Let’s commit to better safeguarding our vulnerable mothers, sisters, daughters, friends and neighbors and the people who love them.

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