by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Calls to Maine domestic violence hotlines went up 20 percent between April and June, a number only slightly more worrisome than what happened in March, when they went down.

“It was so quiet it was eerie,” said Dorathy Martel, executive director of the Next Step Domestic Violence Project. “I think it's because people hadn’t worked out how to reach out when the person abusing them was at home.”