Hi, Crime Jenkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and I'm Brett.

And today I want to tell you a story that is really important to me because it emphasizes

the importance of an issue where you spend a good amount of time on this show. As many

of you may know, October is domestic violence awareness month. And this month, I felt

that it was really important to highlight this issue and specifically highlight it within

the LGBTQ community. I actually recently read an article from the Boston Globe where

the director of this organization called the Network Love Red was interviewed. Her name

was Beth Levinthal, and she actually said that domestic violence is very much under-recognized

within this community. So we want to bring attention to it here. Because just like love

knows no gender, neither does jealousy, dysfunction, or murder.

Our story starts in Western Massachusetts, and one of the best or maybe worst things depending

on how you look at it about a region like this is that everybody knows everybody. Or if

you don't know them, you probably know someone who does. And this is also true of groups

within those communities like paramedics, local law enforcement, emergency medical personnel,

everyone is familiar. Anna Marie Cochran-Renthala grew up in a big tight-knit Italian Irish family

in Western Massachusetts. She loved animals and especially loved her dog who she named

Snuggles. And she had another dog named Charlie, which is a great name for a dog. I'm just

saying. We approved. So it was very clear from a young age that she had a heart for service.

According to Daily Hampshire Gazette, Anne Marie initially wanted to actually be a veterinarian

when she was growing up, but she eventually found her pathway in helping people instead.

And she chose to be a paramedic. It's a really unique person that it takes to be a paramedic.

It's a super stressful job where the stakes couldn't be higher. You literally have someone's

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