Twenty-year-old Lilly DesRoberts talks about how her high school boyfriend robbed her of college life in the Teen Dating Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month episode of the “Let’s Talk About It” podcast.

This podcast is hosted by Patrisha McLean, CEO and founder of Finding Our Voices, and features conversations with survivors of domestic abuse. The episode with DesRoberts, a pre-dental student at UNE Biddeford, is available across all Podcast platforms starting February 7.   

According to DesRoberts, her first year of college in Rhode Island was plagued by her hometown boyfriend in Maine. She says he tracked her every move on the popular location-sharing app Life360 and hounded her with disturbing texts, including threatening to drive his car into the Saco river and stream the suicide on FaceTime.

Electronic stalking and suicide threats are common tactics of abusers of all ages to get and maintain control of their intimate partners, according to McLean, in a Finding Our Voices news release.

DesRoberts talks in the Podcast episode about how hard it was to escape the relationship, and her and her parents’ frustration with the York County District Attorney for declining to charge him for the variety of criminal offenses he committed against her.

On February 4, Lilly joined McLean and two other domestic abuse survivors for a presentation about domestic abuse to medical students at UNE Biddeford. DesRoberts is also featured in the Finding Our Voices domestic abuse-awareness poster campaign featuring the photo portraits and quotes of 50 women survivors aged 18 to 85 including Governor Mills.  

“I think everything happens for a reason,” said DesRoberts, "and I hope to use my unfortunate experience to make a difference in the world and change in the lives of the many survivors of domestic violence.”

McLean’s conversation with DesRoberts is the 20th episode of the “Let’s Talk About It” podcast. Her conversations with survivors of domestic abuse also air on the community radio stations WERU-FM out of Orland and WMPG out of Portland, run by University of Southern Maine students.

Finding Our Voices is the grassroots nonprofit connecting Maine women survivors of domestic abuse and providing resources including financial assistance, access to free dental care, and an online support group.  

February activities include an educational march on Valentine’s Day in downtown Lewiston. For more information visit https://findingourvoices.net/