Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a true crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa.

Hi, Melissa.

Hi, Mandy. How are you?

I'm doing great. How are you?

I'm doing really well. We've been doing this series this month. We've only had one episode released and man, we've gotten some amazing messages and comments and I don't know. It's been very, very nice. Yeah. It's not like that we need it. It just feels like we're doing something that's helpful and that's always,

I mean, that's the goal, right? Yeah. And so still thinking of the people in the process of

dealing with this hurricane that it feels like never ending every day. There's more terrible,

terrible updates and the devastation keeps riding. Yeah, it's unreal. So we're still thinking of you guys.

We actually did post on our Instagram some ways you can help out if you'd like to.

And so that's there. I'm sure you've seen other things, but there's some like boots on the

ground people that are actually actively working in the areas if you want to check that out.

So it is the second week of October,

and as we've been mentioning, it is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and all month long,

we are highlighting stories involving domestic violence to bring awareness to what is a very real

and very scary reality that up to a third of women have or will experience at some point in their life.

We are eager to continue our campaign to share not only these stories of these victims, but

also to spread the word that if you are experiencing any form of domestic violence, you aren't

alone, and there are resources and support out there to help you navigate a path to safety.

So we will have some of those resources to share at the end of the

episode, and of course we will have them in our show notes as well. Today, the story we're discussing

is a little bit different. While it is a story of domestic violence, the ending isn't what you

might expect, but not necessarily in a bad way. The story of Francine Hughes is an important one to tell because it's actually a case that led to some of the most increased awareness efforts around the topic of domestic violence and that, of course, led to changes in domestic violence laws.

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