When she took the witness stand in February, she appeared exactly as she is – a bright, professional and attractive woman with blond hair and an easy smile. But as she told the jury about her experiences as the ex-girlfriend of now-convicted felon Michael McClellan, the years of fear and anxiety Dawn Hillyer endured became painfully evident. Before the Allen Superior Court jury convicted McClellan of two counts of stalking, they heard a similar story from McClellan’s ex-wife, Torrie Stiverson, and saw again the fear. With the click of the handcuffs around McClellan’s wrists moments after his conviction, both women say they felt safe for the first time in years.
Now, as McClellan begins a six-year prison sentence, Stiverson and Hillyer are looking for ways to make their experiences count, to use this struggle to help others in similar situations. Statistics say there will be others, and experts find the technology present in our daily lives makes it easier for stalkers like McClellan to insert themselves into nearly every area of a victim’s existence. “These things are unfortunately way too common,” said Rebecca Dreke, senior program associate for the National Center for Victims of Crime. About one in six women will be on the receiving end of stalking behavior, making its likelihood alarmingly great, Dreke said.
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