DES MOINES, Iowa — The 1700 block of East Diehl looked very different Wednesday afternoon. Des Moines police covered the area investigating what they later called a homicide-suicide.
A man shot the woman he lived with before killing himself, leaving only a 10-year-old child behind.
"There's always much more history to this story typically," said Amy Carpenter with the Iowa Child Advocacy Board.
The 10-year-old was not in the home during the shooting according to police. But what happens to the child now?
"Being with family or friends or somebody is important for kids so they can still have that safety or sense of security or place where they belong," Carpenter said.
As Carpenter mentioned, ideally, survivors of violence, like what happened on Wednesday, get placed with family. That is not always possible.
"They have a list of who they have to contact first, second or third," said Angelica Cardenas-Chaisson with the Child and Family Policy Center. "The last resort is foster care."
Wherever victims of tragedies like this end up, there is still an even bigger issue at hand.
"Hopefully there will be services to support through therapy. This child will probably need therapy and support for a long time," said Cardenas-Chaisson.
Both Cardenas-Chaisson and Carpenter see this as another example of an all too prevalent issue.
"Domestic violence. It's a big issue in families right now," Cardenas-Chaisson added. "With the pandemic there's a lot of family isolation. I'm sure there's a lot of added stress."
"It's pretty easy to live next door to people and have people in your community and never see anything like this but somebody somewhere must have seen something going on," Carpenter told Local 5.
Carpenter also added people should not be afraid to contact authorities if they sense something wrong.