As the Portage community continues to grapple with a Thanksgiving weekend domestic shooting in which a beloved high school secretary was killed by her husband, the director of a shelter for victims of domestic violence said the most dangerous time for a victim is when they plan to leave.
Charles Manville, 45, shot and killed his wife Brandy Manville, 46, and seriously wounded the couple’s 21-year-old daughter before killing himself on the night of Nov. 29, according to Portage Police.
The Porter County Coroner’s Office has ruled Brandy Manville’s manner of death a homicide and the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds; Charles Manville died by suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Brandy Manville filed for divorce on July 25, according to online court records, and a court hearing on a dissolution of the Manvilles’ marriage was scheduled for Dec. 16.
“After she said she was going to leave, that in-between time is when an abuser would be most fearful,” said Jessica Luth, executive director and CEO of The Caring Place, a shelter for victims of domestic violence, in Valparaiso.
On average, Luth said, it can take seven times before someone will leave an abusive partner for good, and each time they go back, the abuse can get worse.
“And in this situation, I think alcohol was involved as well,” she said. “That never helps.”
Police have said the couple’s daughter called 911 to report her father was drunk, throwing items around the house and had a firearm simultaneously. Police arriving at the residence and a 911 dispatcher heard the sound of gunfire simultaneously as Charles Manville killed his wife, injured his daughter and then took his own life.
Police have said officers responded at 7:41 p.m. on Nov. 29 to the 6300 block of Monument Avenue for “a report of a domestic disturbance.”
As the daughter reported her father had a firearm, police said, “911 operators could hear the male saying that everyone was going die followed by the sound of gunfire.” Police approaching the home heard the gunfire as well.
The daughter was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital before being transported to a trauma center by a Lutheran Air medical helicopter. Police are not naming the daughter without her consent.
Another child in the family was with relatives at the time of the shooting.
The Caring Place, said Luth, offers an array of services beyond the shelter, including helping victims with protective orders against their abusers and helping them set up post office boxes when they move so their addresses remain private.
“It can be so hard to make the decision to leave,” Luth said, adding that having children or a history with a partner factor into that. “Domestic violence can escalate so quickly. You can be in serious danger.”
Domestic violence impacts all types of people, she added. “We have options for people to get away but it isn’t always easy.”
Indiana is in the top five states in the nation with the highest rates of domestic violence, Luth said, “which is not ideal.” According to state statistics compiled by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and provided by Luth, 42.5% of Indiana women and 27.9% of Indiana men experience intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes.
Firearms are another facet of the statistics on domestic violence, Lutz added.
“I think the reality of firearms in Indiana certainly increases the amount of domestic violence we see here,” she said.
According to the 2020 Indiana Domestic Violence Fatality Review Report, the most recent report available, 72% of the domestic violence fatalities for that year in this state were due to firearms; that’s 66 of the 91 fatalities.
Eleven of the fatal domestic violence cases that year were murder-suicides, according to the report.
Additionally, according to a report released by the Violence Policy Center in 2023, most murder-suicide victims are female; the killers in murder-suicides are almost always male; most murder-suicides involve an intimate partner; murder-suicides almost always involve a gun; children are both the victims of and witnesses to murder-suicides; and most murder-suicides occur in the home.
Luth said that Brandy Manville’s violent death “certainly had an impact here” for clients at The Caring Place. She noted that Brandy Manville was much loved by the community and called her death a tragedy.
The day after the shooting, the Portage Township Schools released a statement describing Brandy Manville as someone who “always gave a welcoming smile to all visitors to the main office, offering many of our students a listening ear and words of encouragement each day.”
The district made counseling services available for students and staff as they returned to campus on Monday.
“Our school community is deeply saddened and impacted by this tragedy as Mrs. Manville touched the lives of so many of our students and staff. Our hearts are with her family and everyone grieving this loss,” the district has said.
Beth Johnson, a longtime friend, coworker and neighbor of Brandy Manville’s, has said Brandy Manville was a breast cancer survivor and that her friend was “like the heartbeat of that school.”
Olivia Chelich, also a friend of Brandy Manville, set up a GoFundMe account for the couple’s two children in the aftermath of the shooting. Chelich, who said she has been spending her time by the daughter’s bedside at the hospital, could not be reached for further comment but said on the fundraising site that nothing meant more to Brandy Manville than her children.
“Being a mother was her favorite job, and she was the best person for it. Her children always felt her love and knew they had her in their corner,” Chelich said, also calling her friend the “perfect person” for her job as the high school’s secretary.
“She knew that school like the back of her hand. The children that passed in those hallways knew she was an advocate for them and none of them walked away from her hungry or without a smile on their face,” Chelich said.
As of Saturday morning, the fundraising effort had raised more than $53,000 for the Manville children.
alavalley@chicagotribune.com
