http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/10/unraveling_what_went_so_tragic.html
Domestic violence in 2010
Homicide cases with ties to domestic violence allegations in Southwest Michigan this year include:
On April 8, Michael Cowling, 40, shot and killed his girlfriend of five years, Jenny Gigi Bickings, 26, at the Lotus Townhomes across from Kalamazoo Valley Community College, police said, Cowling then killed himself. Bickings brother Shawn Reed said his sister had recently ended her relationship with Cowling. As far as I knew, they were done, Reed said.
On May 22, Rollon Marko, 27, who had been previously jailed on a domestic violence charge, allegedly shot and killed his 19-year-old pregnant girlfriend Courtney Delano at the Walnut Trails Apartments in Portage. Marko is awaiting trial. He was very abusive to her during the whole relationship, said Kassie Kingsbury, Delanos friend. I tried to get her away from him. Her whole family tried.
On June 15, Richard Douglas Riddle, 55, allegedly stabbed to death his girlfriend, Delores Givhan, 46, in a West North Street home in Kalamazoo. Her relatives told the Gazette she had long been the victim of abuse by Riddle, who was on parole for other assaults on Givhan. During a court hearing in July, a witness testified that Riddle said Givhan deserved to be killed.
Police are still looking for Venus Stewart, 32, a St. Joseph County woman who investigators say was abducted from her parents home on April 26 and is presumed to be dead. Police believe her husband, Douglas Stewart, 29, kidnapped and killed her. He is scheduled to go on trial Nov. 1. In a petition for a personal-protection order against her husband in 2009, Venus Stewart wrote: Once Doug loses all control over me, he is going to hunt me down and kill me.