Peace, Happiness & Harmony Was Not In The Cards For Murdered Marriage Counselor

Forty two year old Tonya Hunter of Bedford Heights, Ohio tried to help many couples save their marriage. Unfortunately she was unable to save her own.

Maurice Lyons

The marriage counselor was stabbed to death in her home by her estranged husband just hours before she was to file for a divorce. Maurice Lyons 38, has been charged with aggravated murder.

Hunter’s 4-year-old son was dropped off near a bar after she was killed Sunday night in the Cleveland suburb, according to media reports. The boy who was not Lyons’ child led police to his mother’s body.

“He was able to tell the police his address and where his mother was,” Leroy Hunter, the victim’s uncle, told Cleveland TV station WKYC-Ch. 3. “So the violent act had to have happened in front of this child so we know that this child is traumatized.”

Lyons was arrested Monday in downtown Cleveland and charged with aggravated murder and domestic violence, the TV station reported.

The couple had been married only seven months. According to a report in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Hunter met Lyons in an anger management class.

Hunter had filed two domestic violence reports against Lyons, The Plain Dealer noted, citing a recent police document that said: “The defendant (Lyons) who appeared high on drugs moved close to Tanya Hunter/spouse demanding money in an intimidating manner. The defendant then pushed Hunter/spouse against the kitchen sink.”

Lyons has a criminal record in Missouri, Illinois and Ohio, the paper said.

Hunter earned a master’s degree from Case Western Reserve University in social science and started her own counseling practice in 2007, Success 1 Services, according to the company’s website.

“My goal is to help individuals, couples and families restore to peace, happiness and harmony,” she wrote on a Psychology Today website advertising her services. Apparently peace, happiness and harmony could not be restored to her violently brief marriage to Lyons.

Will domestic violence ever end?

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