'She deserved so much better': Slain Windsor woman’s mother speaks out against domestic violence

A week after her the discovery of Sahra Bulle’s body in south Windsor, her mother is opening up about the loss and seeking reform in the way domestic violence is identified and reported.

“I was never prepared for the way it turned out to be,” said Fartumo Kusow. “I don't think she appreciated the depth of danger she was in.”

Bulle, 36 at the time of her death, went missing on May 26. For two weeks an entire community tried to find her.

Her body was found in a field near the 1900 block of Northway Avenue on June 8.

Kusow said the entire family is struggling with the loss of Bulle, the pain of the news still very fresh in their minds.

“Mornings had been really difficult waking up and kind of like realizing this is real,” Kusow said.

Bulle’s estranged husband, 45-year-old Brian Aaron Marbury, was arrested near the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel and is charged with first-degree murder.

“She loved this man who now is accused of her of her murder. She loved him,” Kusow said. “She loved him to an explainable level.”

After an 18-year-long relationship with the accused, Bulle voluntarily checked herself into the Hiatus House on May 8.

“That was actually my birthday and I thought that was the best birthday that she could have ever given me for deciding that she was going to check herself there,” said Kusow, noting it was a big step for her daughter, who over the years went out of her way to protect her estranged husband by not reporting any domestic violence throughout their on-and-off relationship.

“She was trying to find a way to get out without causing any undue harm because she, despite what happened, she deeply cared for him,” said Kusow. “She really she deserved so much better. And her only crime is she was she was loyal to a fault.”

In light of her daughter’s death, Kusow wants to see reform when it comes to reporting domestic violence at the hospital level.

Kusow believes victims of abuse should be able to get a risk assessment from a medical professional who could in turn report domestic abuse in a way that protects patient confidentiality but heightens the victim’s self-awareness of their situation.

“I don’t know if it would have saved her. But I don't think she ever appreciated the danger she was in,” said Kusow. “In the place she was in the place she was supposed to be the most safe.”

Kusow says her daughter was the oldest of five siblings and remembers her as a compassionate, charitable, hard-working person and life-long lover of literature.

Bulle worked in the service department of a car dealership in Windsor and was working towards finishing her criminology degree. Kusow said she wanted to go to graduate school to ultimately work with vulnerable people in the criminal justice system.

Still trying to come to grips with their loss, the family doesn’t want Bulle’s death to be in vain.

“If any woman listening this could hear that one time, is one time too many,” said Kusow. “One act of violence, no matter how small, you have to realize it's not going to be only once.”

“Where that one time came from there are too many other violent acts to come.” 

A fundraiser has been set up in memory of Sahra to support women seeking a higher education as well as survivors of domestic violence.