Ericka Ingram homelessness risk

I was twelve years old when our lives exploded.

One of our closest friends divulged a terrible secret of the abuse she had lived with for years.

You’d think any number of the adults who now knew, would go straight to the police to make sure that she and her siblings were safe, right?

Except

Multiple men who abused her held positions in law enforcement; her own father as the undersheriff in our county.

These people were pillars of the community – active in many organizations and well-known.

And if THEY were not safe people, who was?

When I say our lives exploded. They did.

We were under siege in our own home as the national media descended on our small town and identified where we lived and our phone number.

Our answering machine quickly filled with messages from famous FAMOUS people who wanted the story. Movie producers came calling. The courthouse parking lot was a zoo of news vans.

Three men were arrested – all in law enforcement. And as the case progressed, our daily lives became a fight for safety.

Our phones were bugged, we were physically stalked, followed in cars and hit.

My 8-year old sister answered the phone and was subjected to the familiar voice of one of the arrestees telling her what he was going to do to our mother.

Photos of my summer camp were stolen from the store while being developed and returned with black tape over my face.

A kitten slain and her blood used to write on the house.

A bullet through my window.

We began sleeping in my parents’ room when my dad would leave for his graveyard shift. I will never forget the night my mother held a gun with shaking hands – pointed at the door one of the stalkers was trying to break into as we were alone.

It was terrifying, but nowhere near what our friend and her siblings endured.

I share this now with much anxiety – as our link to this case has meant death threats.

This became such a widely covered story with many terrible details easily available to read. Anyone who lived in Thurston County in the late 1980’s surely remembers this horrifying case.

This is Ericka Ingram.

Her Story.

Her Survival.

Her Flight.

She is a mother of her own beautiful children and is in the fight of her life again.

A victim of domestic violence by a now ex-husband who has pursued them through multiple moves.

She cares for her child who has special needs and has done everything to keep her children safe now.

She is facing eviction THIS WEEK.

My heart aches.

She has spent her career working with domestic violence survivors, human trafficking victims, special needs children.

She’s reached out to the domestic violence resources in her area and they are all tapped out.

I asked if I could share her story in her old stomping grounds – to ask if we could help somehow.

Her simple need is for first and last month rent and security deposit to get herself and her son to safety.

I’m asking us old school Living Water tribe to help again.

We protected her as she told her story and faced unimaginable exposure and risk.

She made our community safer with her courage.

It’s our turn to protect her again.