Police are holding a 54-year-old Marshall Islands man without bail after he was charged with murder for stabbing his wife multiple times following a domestic altercation.
Police said an off-duty police officer found Morton Makroro, 54, covered in blood inside his house Saturday a few feet from where his wife, Emson Makroro, lay dead from multiple stab wounds with a kitchen knife embedded in her chest.
Emson, 50, was a teacher at the College of the Marshall Islands who had received her master’s degree last month.
Her murder produced an outpouring of anger in Majuro.
Educator Dr. Hilda Heine said Marshall Islands President Jurelang Zedkaia should establish a high level violence against women task force to find solutions to spouse abuse. Although Majuro averaged under two murders annually over the past 12 years, a study issued two years ago by the national women’s group, Women United Together Marshall Islands, reported that more than half of the women surveyed said they experienced some form of physical or verbal violence from male members of their family.
Islanders say the social environment of a small population prevents reporting and prosecution of violence against women. The country’s secretary of health Justina Langidrik said Friday that doctors tell her they have been warned against reporting incidents of violence by family members of women who are brought into the emergency room for treatment.
“There is still no proper protocol for reporting violence against women complaints or suspected incidences at either the Ministry of Health or at the police department,” Heine said. “Responsible agencies must be brought to the table to address this issue and suggest comprehensive and systematic legal, political, educational and social/cultural strategies to deal with violence against women and to seek necessary resources to help us deal with suggested strategies.”
Marshall Islands Council of Non-Government Organizations Director Bonny Taggart said Friday she is looking at options for establishing a safe house for battered women. “Women would benefit from time away from an abusive situation, with guards 24/7,” Taggart said.
“I think it is time for a Women’s Crisis Center to be established to provide a safe place for women to discuss issues of violence and safety,” said Dr. Irene Taafaki, director of the University of the South Pacific campus in Majuro. “Nothing can bring Emson back, but we can arise to do something in her name to safeguard others at risk.”
A police investigation said that Emson Makroro’s murder happened while a group of men played bingo outside her house.
Shortly before the murder happened, four men — off-duty police officer Steve Abwe, Aine Aine, Chris Lakien and Wilson Milne — were sitting in the vicinity of the house and reported Makroro was drunk before an argument broke out between them. They reported hearing shouting and swear words coming from the house. At one point, according to police investigators, Emson opened the window and called out to the group of men, “you guys come and see this guy here, this woman basher.”
Police detective Capt. Vincent Tani reported the police received a call from off-duty police officer Abwe reporting the fight between Makroro and his wife. A few minutes after this initial call, the fight subsided, so Abwe made a second call to the national police station, saying the fight had stopped, which called off a possible police intervention.
Meanwhile, Aine and two others were playing bingo on pallets just outside the house where the Makroros lived when the argument resumed, Tani said.
Suddenly Aine’s four-year-old daughter — who had entered the house looking for a playmate —screamed to him, “Dad, blood.”
When Abwe opened the door, he said he found Makroro standing just inside with no shirt on and covered in blood. Abwe reported Makroro was wiping blood from his arms, chest and stomach with a T-shirt.
Abwe found her face down and motionless, with “blood everywhere,” Tani said.
High Court Judge James Plasman ordered Makroro held without bail, and set a preliminary hearing for August 24.
In explaining the order to hold Makroro without bail, Plasman said “no other means are available to provide reasonable assurance the defendant will not flee or gravely endanger public safety.”
