Now although Mai suffered the abuse in silence and her friends also kept it a secret, wasn't there anything else the police could have done? Senior Superintendent Andrew Ramirez explained that if a victim or complainant refuses to press charges there is nothing much the police can do and he told us that is what happened in Miriam Mai's case. As we told you, Mai had gone to the police to complain about the abuse on several occasions. She had also gotten a protection order against Bustillos but according to Ramirez, after all that, she still refused to press charges. Ramirez said that there has to be an adjustment to the law regarding domestic abuse so the police can do more.
Courtney Weatherburne
"I know that there are formalities as you said before, the victim has to want to press charges and take it to court but aren't there special situations when you know personally that a woman is being abused by her husband or boyfriend. Isn't there any special situation where you really push on and try to help the woman? Because maybe she's fearful, she's afraid to speak out, she doesn't know how to tell her family members that she's being abused, she doesn't know where to go."
Sr. Supt. Andrew Ramirez, Cayo Police Commander
"In order for the police to investigate, in order for the police to activate any resource, there has to be a distress call from the public. We cannot take it on our own that Courtney Weatherburne is in an abusive relationship unless she tells us. And she's the one that will magnate is she wants to pursue the matter or we can then inform the social services 'you need to speak with Courtney because she's being abused'. Then they themselves will do their background check but they can only do so much based on your authority, because you are basically the one that 
direct and pursue the matter. Regretfully people need to understand these scenarios, however if there's a thing within our laws that says 'offences committed in your view', so if we see the physical abuse then we can take certain actions. Whether it be disorderly conduct or something that can be implemented against the individual because it is something that we are seeing."
But Ramirez says to avoid all of this, women need to be aware of the signs and know when to get out of the relationship before it's too late.
Sr. Supt. Andrew Ramirez, Cayo Police Commander
"My opinion on my experience as an officer of over 25 years is that it normally begins with the emotional abuse, financial abuse, I think once it goes into the violence it is a road which, I recommend, someone has to move out. That road goes into more violence and eventually, because after death there is no more violence, but that is not the way that we want."
There have been 8 cases of domestic abuse reported since the murder of Mai and Miralda.
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