What if we could see murder coming, dropping out of the sky like a falling safe, and nobody could do anything to stop it or push the victim out of the way?

That's what happened to Tracey Walker on July 15. The 24-year-old North Fairmount woman was strangled and died of multiple stab wounds, according to the Hamilton County coroner's report.

Her murder was hardly noticed - just another crime brief. But here's a chilling twist: Just two months before she was killed, a judge predicted it would happen.

At a court hearing May 15, frustrated prosecutors and cops had to drop rape charges against DeAngelo Shelton, 25, Walker's live-in boyfriend and the father of her youngest child, because she refused to help them put him back in jail.

"I'm a little concerned for her safety," a cop said.

"I am, too," said Judge Robert Ruehlman.

The prosecutor, Greg Hartmann, now clerk of courts, said Walker refused to cooperate, and they had no case without her because Shelton claimed the rape was consensual sex.

"The issue in the case is going to be whether he purposely forced her,'' Ruehlman said. "That's the issue. Without her testifying, you're not going to be able to make it, I guess?"

Hartmann replied: "No."

It was the second rape charge that she dropped against Shelton, who had a record of domestic violence, including one 60-day sentence and other charges filed, then dropped by Walker. She visited him five times in jail.

"I'm worried he's going to kill her," Ruehlman said. "I see that so much. He'll get out and hurt her again."

A few weeks later she was dead, and witnesses said the killer was Shelton. A week later, police found his body washed up on a riverbank in Lower Price Hill on July 21. The coroner's office is awaiting lab tests to determine the cause of death.

"There was nothing to show any blunt force, no bullet holes, no stab wounds, nothing like that," said Homicide Sgt. Bob Liston. "It's possible he was high on drugs or alcohol and thought about jumping or fell'' from a bridge.

Shelton had a record of more than a dozen charges, including drugs, assault and aggravated robbery. Ruehlman, who had sentenced him before, called him "a bad addict with a bad temper."

"It really bothers me," he said of Walker's murder. "People say, 'Why do women do that?' but it's a syndrome. They can't get out of it."

Some are emotionally and financially dependent on the abuser. Some are just too terrified to do anything. For good reason.

"The fact of the matter is that most women who end up on a slab at the morgue because of domestic violence were in the process of leaving the abuser," said Theresa Singleton, director of the YWCA's Protection From Abuse program.

She urged abused women to seek help and protection by calling a hot line, 872-9259.

Liston said, "There's only so much protection you can give a person. Some people have to take responsibility to help themselves."

Tracey Walker was murdered and we saw it coming. When it happened, the rest of the world hardly blinked.

But somewhere, there are some abused women who should pay attention.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com, or call 768-8301.