Local officials want victims of domestic abuse in Boone County to know they have a place to turn.

Jane Taylor, executive director of the Mental Health America of Boone County, said last month’s beating death of Beth Stayer, 34, in Whitestown made several women consider their own situations.

“We’ve had a lot more calls (since the death was reported), inquiring what services are available,” she said. “Tragedies like that make people more aware of what can happen in an abusive relationship.”

Stayer’s ex-husband, Michael Stayer, 32, is accused of beating her to death with a hammer and tire iron June 11. He faces felony counts of murder, aggravated battery, battery resulting in serious bodily injury and domestic battery. He’s scheduled to go on trial Oct. 19 in Boone County. If convicted on all four counts, he could face up to 96 years in prison.

Boone County law enforcement officials, citing the pending trial, haven’t said if there had been a pattern of abuse leading to Beth Stayer’s death.

Stayer was a nurse, and she cared for Zionsville Town Council member Valerie Swack when Swack’s second child was born. So Swack asked Taylor and Zionsville Police Chief Rick Dowden to Monday’s council meeting to discuss what resources are available for battered women in the county.

Mental Health America of Boone County opened a short-term shelter in Lebanon for female abuse victims and their children five years ago. Last year the shelter housed 92 people, and Taylor said while the shelter was at full capacity this week, no one is turned away.

“We don’t have the resources they do at the Julian Center (a shelter for abuse victims in Marion County),” Taylor said.

“We don’t have the resources to house families nine months or a year. Sometimes they stay overnight, some stay a few weeks, and we’ve have some who have stayed three months. We find them legal assistance, education opportunities and job training, if needed. We want to give the women choices so they don’t have to stay in an unsafe environment or wind up in a similar situation later.”

Statewide, the number of domestic abuse cases has been steady during the past four years, peaking at more than 5,100 cases from July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006, according to the Web site of the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Chief Dowden said domestic battery calls are a fairly small percentage of his department’s 8,000 to 9,000 calls for service per year. In 2008, the department responded to three domestic battery calls and 48 domestic situations not involving violence. The department responded to seven domestic battery calls the year before. But he cautioned those numbers could be deceiving.

“In law enforcement, we’re taught those numbers are likely to be much higher than we’d believe them to be,” he said.

Boone County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Burcham said his department responded to 256 domestic abuse cases in 2008.