Domestic Abuse Advice

Location: Michigan

Burner account for anonymity purposes. I have a tough situation with a family that I'm fearful could end terribly violent. Sorry, kind of long.

The husband is a violent felon who served a lengthy sentence for almost killing another man. The wife has a long history of poor decision making but nowhere near what the husband has done almost his entire life. After he was released from prison they got married and had children who are all quite young at this point. He was clean and doing alright for awhile but addiction and mental health issues have sent him off the rails again. Unfortunately, this routine is has been very common to us that know him but a wife and kids were never part of the equation in past episodes. I absolutely dreaded the day I found out he was going to be a father because he had never proven to be able to take care of himself, let alone a family.

Things have been bad for awhile but it was recently revealed how bad when the wife showed us video, audio, and photos from a few months ago. He has been very paranoid about her cheating and has nearly the entire house covered in cameras. Audio was captured of about a 25 minute episode of him verbally and physically abusing his wife directly in front of his young daughter. The daughters screams will haunt me the rest of my life. There is only audio of him hitting her but he verbally confirms that he did it and threatens to do it again. She also has photos of her bruised head.

The biggest issue I would say is her hesitation in following through with legal action. She is a victim of domestic abuse but also has her own issues that stop her from doing what it best for her children. Shes not a bad mom but she is incapable of protecting them from the danger that is their father. He doesn't live there anymore but has repeatedly entered the home unannounced, stolen her personal property (on video), and since his name is still on the lease PD has basically shrugged it off.

We don't know what to do if she won't help herself for the sake of her kids, but we know something must be done before this escalates into something we all fear could turn into a worst case scenario situation. Any advice on how to help these kids would be truly appreciated.