Double Homicide Highlights Domestic Abuse

Trieste Clayton obviously knew that the father of her child was dangerous, because she had an order of protection against him. But the warning may not have been enough if he is found to be responsible for their deaths.

Robert Griffo says "Domestic violence affects every member of a family. It affects the victims friends, her own biological family, it affects her employer, it affects everybody in the community in some way shape or form."

And Western New York's most recent case of alleged domestic abuse had an even deeper affect. It claimed the life of a young mother and her 3 month-old baby.

Griffo is a Program Coordinator at the Family Counseling Service of the Finger Lakes in Geneva.

He and his 4 colleagues are currently working 55 cases in Ontario county, and he estimates there are dozens more.

"Many more victims than not don't come and ask for services for a plethora of reasons. Shame, guilt, fear that if the abusing party knows that they're getting help that the violence could escalate."

Griffo believes that while a visible sign of help, like the order of protection Clayton had against Ashline, is a great tool for victims, the document can also be dangerous.

"It is a piece of paper that a bullet could penetrate or a fist could go through...Now the batterer has been exposed and sometimes that increases the violence".

Clayton and Ashline also had a child together.

Griffo often sees abusers use children as an excuse to maintain contact and continue the violence.

"It's not about a mental illness, its not about anger management, its not about substance abuse. Its about an attitude and a belief that they have the right to do this act."

Griffo spent 6 years working in Bath for a victim's group.

He says Stueben County officials take domestic violence quote "as serious as a heart attack", and that Ashline will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.