Cries Unheard: The Donna Yaklich Story

but the truth is, no woman should EVER endure this torture from her husband.

While Yaklich's reputation has been marred as having planned this out (to collect insurance money) this does not mean she deserved to be beaten and emotionally abused by her husband. Yes, he was a vice cop; that does not give him carte blanche to treat everyone as subordinate, which he apparently did.

There is a brief appearance by Hillary Swank, as Donna's stepdaughter. Brad Johnson and Jaclyn Smith fit the roles accordingly, and if even half of this film is accurate, Donna's husband was a monster.

This film is educational, and helpful for women's issues. Whether or not the victim received money, in the end, is a moot point. Donna deserved a stable marriage, and instead endured years of abuse. This is NEVER acceptable. 8/10

This woman was a horrific child abuser and murder that murdered her husband and then destroyed his reputation. Her own son wants nothing to do with her. This move was fictional in its' entirety. She was anything but a victim.

In the real story as told on the ID Channel's true crime series "Evil Stepmother," Donna Yaklich allegedly, both physically & verbally, abused her stepchildren, especially the youngest, which was her 5 year old stepdaughter. Also, during the autopsy there was no evidence found of steroid use in Dennis Yaklich's remains. Moreover, the decease's family accused Donna of stealing $11,000 from his parents & that she was motivated by greed. Dennis had $325,000 worth of life insurance.

I remember my mom telling me a story about a women who was beaten to death by her husband in her hometown in Portsmouth, VA. Folks in the small neighborhood heard the man beating his wife. In fact, the beating was so severe that mom said it sounded as if he was chopping wood. However, it was during the era when people didn't interfere with a man "disciplining" his wife. The man got less than 5 years for the murder. Similar to the facts in the Donna Yaklich Story -- folks who could have made a difference stayed loyal to the old myth that what a man does with his woman is his "business" -- no matter how terrible. I'd like to think we've grown more as a society, however, my perception is that lawsuits against law enforcement agencies has been the main factor in changing laws that affect the abuse of women. As with everything else, it's a matter of money and politics. I wish Donna hadn't felt so helpless, and had taken greater steps to protect her life via the legal system.

Halfway through watching it, I discovered that it was supposed to be based on a true story. I made a Google search and found that the reality was totally different to the portrayal in this TV drama. Even though it claims to be based on a true story, it isn't. That was very misleading. Regards to the facts of the story, one wonders why they made this rubbish and omitted what actually happened. The acting was good, which is why I voted two stars.