ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — We now know the names of the people who died in a murder-suicide in an Orange County neighborhood.
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Investigators said James Truax killed his wife on Thursday before turning the gun on himself.
They lived in a home right by Alafaya Trail in the Stoneybrook east subdivision.
The case makes 10 domestic homicide deaths in Orange County alone just this year.
Dr. Janie Lacy is a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in relationship trauma and CEO of Life Counseling Solutions.
“We’re also seeing a normalization of emotional, mental and sometimes even physical abuse, that they become so desensitized to it,” Lacy said. “‘Well, she pushed me or I pushed him or he punched a hole in the wall,’ and they just speak as is if it happened to a third party.”
Harbor House says not only have it seen an increase in the number of victims seeking care, but also in victims who have gotten strangled by their partners.
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It has counted more than 9,300 crisis calls into their hotline, a 40% rise over 2021.
Harbor House CEO Michelle Spervel said there are trends that have only gotten worse with the economy.
“Domestic violence impacts everybody,” she said. “It is blind to socioeconomics, it will impact a very wealthy couple, and someone who doesn’t have a lot of money, same sex couples, it doesn’t matter.”
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