247: Alyssa watched her abuser burn

If you’re in the Austin, Texas area – let’s meet up. I’ll be in Austin the second week of March – and this is 2026, for you listeners of the future – we’ll have another in-person Listener Meetup on March 11. This is where you can come and hang out with me and other podcast listeners, have a drink, ask a question, whatever. I’d love to get to know you! All of the details can be found in the What Was That Like Facebook group, at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook.

And now, on with today’s episode, which needs a content warning for discussion of suicide.

Here in the US, 1 out of every 3 women have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner. My guest in this episode is Alyssa. She WAS that 1 out of 3.

This is a Flashback episode. Alyssa told this story on the podcast way back in episode 16, more than 7 years ago. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, I was not able to get in touch with her recently for an update.

Alyssa lives in Tennessee and she’s really into music. She’s a musician, a songwriter, and an audio engineer. Her boyfriend, Jared, was abusive to her - emotionally and physically – and police were actively planning to arrest him. But before that could happen, Jared decided he would take his own life. And he wanted to do it in a way that would be disturbing and traumatic for anyone nearby.

Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here:

https://WhatWasThatLike.com/247

Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai.

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