we feel sad when something tragic happens to somebody. >> reporter: alicia wheeler followed the rules and applied for a temporary order but never made it to her trial for a permanent order. she was killed one day after filing the tpo. >> as a judge, it's hard to predict which person is not going to follow your order. >> we are devastated. >> reporter: protective orders work 80% of the time. >> you never know how intent the abuser is. >> reporter: it's designed to reach out to victims immediately following the crime. that's when a first responder calls advocate here and within an hour the advocate will meet with a victim and set up an emergency plan. >> we're here to assist you in safety planning. >> reporter: in april alone, survivors and advocates created 585 safety emergency plans, including relocating 43 families but only providing 15 lock changes. >> so a lot of this is the victim trying to engage her own safety. >> reporter: 75% of victims do not have attorneys in court with them, so many victims never submit the evidence that could help their case. >> access to justice is an iss

front of their children. 48-year-old claude kenny admitted to stabbing and killing 42-year-old alicia wheeler as she walked home with the children last month in northeast. she had requested a protect order against kenny the day before she was murdered. his recommendation sentence is 30 years about mean bars. >>> -- behind bars. snoop october is domestic violence awareness month. congresswoman edwards wants to make sure victims in maryland knows about the resources available to them. she joins us. thank you for being with us today. >> thank you, laura. >> reporter: explain to us why there is a growing need for help when it comes to domestic violence? >> i think what we know is that we have spent a lot of time over the last many years since the passage of the violence against women act in 1994, bringing a lot of federal attention, resources to domestic violence. that we have done an amazing job of getting people to identify themselves as victims to become survivors and engage lump and to help survivors of domestic violence and as a result, of course, there is a tremendous demand for resource ne