This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens)

Lauren McCluskey: The Warning Signs Were Already There (Part 2)

This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens)

Show Notes

In the weeks before Lauren McCluskey was murdered, the danger wasn't invisible. The stalking. The lies. The escalating threats. The extortion. The repeated contact after the relationship ended. Lauren reported what was happening, asked for help, and kept trying to protect herself. So if the signs were already there, why wasn't anyone able to recognize what they meant? In Part 2, we step back from Lauren's case to ask the bigger question we've been working toward: Can we actually tell which abusive relationships are most likely to turn deadly? We look at what researchers know about intimate partner homicide, the warning signs that matter most, why some seemingly terrifying behaviors aren't as predictive as we might assume, and what happens when known risk factors are scattered across different people and systems instead of being seen together. Because the problem may not be that there are no warning signs. It may be that recognizing them is only the beginning.

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