By Rep. Greg Walden
For the Enterprise
On December 1, 2013, Kari Rene Hunt was brutally murdered by her estranged husband in the bathroom of a motel room in Marshall, Texas. Her three children listened through the door as she was stabbed repeatedly.
Kari screamed to her 9-year-old daughter to “call 9-1-1.” The girl did as instructed, frantically dialing 9-1-1 four times. But each time, she heard static on the other end of the line. What she didn’t know is that, because of the way the motel’s phone system was set up, she had to dial “9” first to reach an outside line. She told her grandfather later, “I tried, but it wouldn’t work, Papa.”
On June 2, 2007 – just days after her high school graduation – Kelsey Smith went to a Target store in . . .
