By: Danny Jacobs

Tania Arrya has no direct knowledge of the relationship between George Huguely and Yeardley Love, which irrevocably ended with Love’s death at her University of Virginia apartment and Huguely charged with killing her.

But the story and its emerging details sound familiar to Arrya, manager of the Teen Dating Violence Prevention Initiative at the House of Ruth.

“Everyone is at risk to end up in an abusive relationship,” she said Tuesday. “It doesn’t matter what your background is.”

The House of Ruth initiative teaches teens to identify qualities in healthy and unhealthy relationships, and how to be supportive of a victim or deal with a perpetrator of abuse. Teens can’t recognize warning signs unless they know what to look for, Arrya said.

What might start as verbal abuse or physical intimidation can escalate when those tactics stop working, Arrya said Tuesday. For example, Huguely might have removed Love’s computer because it contained evidence of previous threats he made against her, she said.

Arrya also suspects Love’s friends knew about the abuse but maybe not its extent, which might have been partly due to Love’s hiding it.

“You’re far away from home on a college campus and determined to be independent,” Arrya said. “Help might be available, but reaching out for help might be difficult in this age group.”

The sad irony, she pointed out, is that asking for help is the mature thing to do.