Fargo TV anchor/reporter was victim of abuse

The most interesting quote from this week’s Robin Huebner story about a Fargo TV reporter who was the victim of domestic abuse is this one: “She’s the last person you’d ever expect that this would happen to.”

It’s from a friend of Lane Zyvoloski of WDAY, who revealed the injuries and assaults at the hands of a boyfriend. The takeaway should be obvious. Even people who are “sweet, smiling and bubbly — someone who is always positive and would do anything for anyone” can be victims of abuse because they’re the victims.

Zyvoloski, who asked that we not identify the boyfriend, said on July 4, 2013, she was watching fireworks from a living room window in their apartment as he showered after work.

When he came out, he became angry that she was enjoying the sights without him.

“He threw me across the room,” Zyvoloski said. “I was like ‘Who is this person?’ ”

It was the first of several verbal and physical assaults in the year that followed.

Each time, her boyfriend would apologize—sometimes within minutes, sometimes hours– and express deep remorse for what he’d done.

Each time, he would say it wouldn’t happen again, but it did.

She said he took great care and pride in his vehicle, and one time while in her car, with him at the wheel as was often the case, he asked if she was mad.

She said nothing because she didn’t want to start an argument.

Finally she asked, “Why is your car dentless, clean, perfect, and my arms are bruised? There’s something wrong with that.”

Zyvoloski said he “freaked out” and slammed on the gas pedal, accelerating rapidly down the highway with both of them screaming at the top of their lungs.

She thought, “He’s going to crash my car and kill us both and there’s nothing I can do.”

Any period of calm would last a week at most, she says. And all the time she was being abused, she was the happy anchor of a morning TV show.

Over time, friends convinced her to leave the relationship.

“No matter how long you’ve been in it and no matter what your situation is, nobody deserves to be treated that way,” she told Huebner, who worked alongside Zyvoloski and suspected nothing.