Friend of mine killed her abusive fiancée with a knife to the liver when she was 18.
She was in quite an emotionally and physically abusive relationship with strong signs of denial about how bad the situation was. Always using the excuse that he was having a bad day, or that she did something to deserve it.
She was cleaning and sharpening a knife one night when they started into a rather heavy fight and he charged at her. Holding the knife, she moved it into a defensive position and as he contacted her, impaled himself on the knife piercing his liver. Emergency services were called, he was taken to the hospital where he subsequently died of what was possibly a repairable wound, however our hospital is known for being shit and as such the doctors failed to save him.
She was charged with murder by the police, handled insanely heavily by the force, then put in jail for 9 months on literally trumped up assumptions by the police, that were later found to be totally erroneous, unsubstantiated and in some cases out right lies. She was taken to trial where the jury found her not guilty on the grounds of self defence, but not before putting her through some horrific mental trauma.
It has been 5 years since she was released (6 since the incident), and it still fucks with her in massive ways. She twice attempted suicide, the first time was pills and alcohol and was clinically dead for 3 minutes before they were able to restart her heart, the second time she was found with both her wrists slashed to high heaven, but was found relatively quickly (her mum was well aware that she was in a state to try again) and she was taken to hospital and again foiled.
It has only been recently (last 6-8 months) that she could look at a photo of him without crying. The week leading up to the date of the stabbing, his birthday, her birthday and the day she was incarcerated are still total and utter writeoffs. She hates her b'day as it is close to his b'day and she still feels she doesn't deserve to have joy on that day as he will never have his again. Christmas is a shit time also, but we are working on changing her b'day and Christmas to something a little more joyous. Sometimes, she will just lose her shit for a day or two for reasons only she knows. We basically monitor the music emanating from the room (certain songs on repeat are a dead ringer for door destroying panic stations) and try to keep some level of contact happening until she emerges again.
This girl is one of the most beautiful people I have ever had the privilege of having in my life apart from this one blemish. All I hope for is one day she can overcome these issues to lead a normal life again.