Published: March 13, 2009 01:11 pm      

Friends remember domestic violence victim

A call to action

PLAINFIELD — A memorial service for a victim of domestic violence also served as a call for action.

Andrea Flood wanted to remember her friend, Yvonne Kretzer, who died Dec. 20, 2008.

Flood went to friends in the community to help her look back over her time with Kretzer. She asked her friend and neighbor, the Rev. Dr. Bob Walters who attends Plainfield United Methodist Church, to help lead the program and approached St. Mark’s Episcopal Church to host it.

The Rev. Tanya Beck is serving as the priest at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.

“When Andrea called and told me about this case, it took me back to 35 years ago when a handful of us started the Julian Center,” Beck said, during the service. “After 30 some years we are still dealing with the same issues. You know where my heart is and you are all welcome to be here tonight.”

Walters serves as the director of leadership development for the United Methodist South Indiana Conference.

“This is designed to be an interfaith worship service,” he said. “My words will come from the Christian tradition, but I hope you can translate it to your own faith and language.”

Walters spoke from Psalm 82.

“We are to give justice to the weak,” he said. “Deliver them from the hands of the wicked.”

He encouraged the crowd to take action because every death takes a toll on the community.

“Yvonne’s death diminishes each one of use because we are all a part of her,” he said. “She was a part of our community.”

Flood spoke about Kretzer and the many obstacles in her life.

“I met Yvonne in October of ‘07,” she said. “She came to our church with her husband, Tim. They had no place to stay and she had severe diabetes. She also had a sadness in her eyes.”

Flood and fellow parishioners of St. Susanna Catholic Church helped to lift up the couple. They found them an inexpensive place to live and even took them to work because they didn’t have transportation.

“Everyone who met Yvonne could see that she had a good soul,” she said. “And she never complained, even after we found out she had a husband that would beat her.”

She said it was March 26, 2008, before Kretzer told her she was having domestic violence problems.

“She called me from a neighbor’s house,” Flood said. “But as with many women, she didn’t follow through that first time. She went back home and was doing very well. She had gotten a good paying job, was carpooling to work, and spending a lot of time at the library.”

Flood said it was in June of last year when Kretzer finally decided to go to Sheltering Wings, the emergency domestic violence shelter in Danville. After a few months, she once again returned home to her husband.

“She called and had been visiting her mother-in-law,” Flood said. “She told me she had fallen down the stairs and hit her head, which didn’t sound right to me.

“We found out later that Tim had been fighting with his mother and Yvonne stepped in to help her. He then picked her up and threw her.”

On Sept. 12, she was beaten while in Beech Grove. She was kicked repeatedly in the head and drug up the stairs, Flood said.

She said the repeated beatings to Kretzer’s head caused several problems, including memory loss and seizures.

Tim Kretzer was charged with battery, domestic battery, public intoxication, and criminal confinement.

“He asked for a speedy trial and he got it,” Flood said. “He was convicted only of domestic battery and was sentenced to just 365 days for this beating.”

Tim Kretzer was released, but was arrested on a probation violation and is currently serving out the rest of his sentence.

“In early December, we had to watch as Yvonne began to deteriorate,” Flood said. “She had tremors and her face would sort of contort. She then got an excruciating headache and had to be taken from Hendricks Regional Health to Methodist Hospital.”

Flood said Kretzer suffered a massive stroke and then died on Dec. 20.

“She was a part of our community,” she said. “She lived down here behind Kroger; she walked our streets. This cannot be brushed under the rug.”

“Tim killed her plain and simple. She left a 19-year-old son who is devastated. The family is blaming themselves because they didn’t know.”

Linda Wells and Maria Larrison, staff members of Sheltering Wings, both spoke about their experiences with Kretzer.

“I met Yvonne in September just after the beating,” Wells said. “She had just been taken off the ventilator and a co-worker and I went to meet with her. My first impression was that she was an intelligent woman with a gentle spirit. But she was terribly broken-hearted. It didn’t take long for us to fall in love with her.

“I would just watch her with all the kids. She just loved the kids. One baby in particular loved Yvonne. That baby was always giving her these big slobbery kisses. She enjoyed them so much and I miss her. I miss seeing her.”

Wells said it was hard sitting with her in the shelter and then later in the hospital when they would talk about her abuser.

“She would ask how someone who says they love you could do this to her,” she said. “She told me, ‘He just left me there to die.’”

While in court, Kretzer could no longer remember the incident because of the head trauma.

“But she looked at the judge and said, ‘He tried to kill me,’” Wells said.

Wells said she is experiencing grief and anger at the loss of her friend.

“I’m angry because the court system has failed her, in my opinion,” she said. “She felt defeated when we left court. But I was so proud of her because she stood her ground.”

Wells said she spent a lot of time with Kretzer as her health took a turn for the worse.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my work at the shelter,” she said. “But I was honored to be in the room as she took her last breath, ending her earthly pain.”

Larrison, who is the shelter’s CEO, issued a call to action to those in the audience.

“My challenge for you is to do something after you leave here,” she said. “It’s time the community gets behind us.”

She said the staff at the shelter cannot be the only people fighting to stop domestic violence. Larrison had been a leading force in the Hendricks County Coalition Against Family Violence prior to her work at Sheltering Wings.

“I would like to suggest that some of you get the coalition started again,” she said. “We need to educate and work on prevention.”

She encouraged those who were interested in helping to call her at the shelter at 745-1496.

———

Online: www.shelteringwings.org