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Transforming tragedy into a bigger future: a personal story from Strategic Coach® client Mike Bischof.
What happened to Cindy Bischof on March 7, 2008, shouldn’t happen to anyone. Her brother, Strategic Coach® client Mike Bischof, has made it his mission to greatly improve the odds that, in future, it won’t.
After Cindy Bischof was fatally shot by her ex–boyfriend, her brother Mike, deeply impacted by her death, responded like an entrepreneur: He took it upon himself to change the rules. Cindy had appealed to the court on several occasions for more protection from her increasingly threatening stalker, but judges told her this was outside their jurisdiction. Since Cindy’s death, Mike has devoted himself to getting them this authority so no one else will lose a loved one the way he did, especially when the means already exist to protect them.
Mike’s campaign, which started as an act of devotion to Cindy and a way of personally dealing with the tragedy, has changed the law not just in Cindy’s home state of Illinois, but also in 11 other states, with four more under way. It has also been a personal journey for Mike that has brought unexpected satisfaction and meaning, and revealed a whole new set of possibilities for this successful 17–year veteran of the mortgage business. His brainchild, The Cynthia L. Bischof Foundation, is named for Cindy, whose story provides a chilling reminder that anyone can become a victim of domestic violence.
The “perfect match” gone wrong.
Cindy Bischof was a successful and respected figure in commercial real estate, profiled in numerous industry journals and awarded titles such as “Top Producer” and “Industrial Broker of the Year,” and named one of Midwest’s “Powerful Women in Real Estate.” She was beautiful, had many friends, and had a well–established life of her own.
When Cindy met Michael Giroux, he seemed like a perfect match: handsome, charming, and an accomplished salesman with the means to share Cindy’s lifestyle. “They were jet–setting to play golf here, play golf there, going on vacations,” recalls Mike. “Steaks on the grill, wine–tasting festivals—the whole thing appeared from the outside to be fine.” But after four years of living together, something changed. Giroux lost his job, fell into a depression, and started drinking heavily.
Cindy eventually asked Giroux to do something about his situation or leave. He agreed, but continued to draw on her emotionally and financially until she finally decided it was time for them to separate. The parting seemed amicable, right up until Cindy found a day–planner entry in which Giroux outlined the things he planned to do to her, starting with destroying her house. She gave him half an hour to pack some things and leave; he could come back a week later while she was away on business to collect the rest of his belongings. Instead, he broke in that night and vandalized her home. “He flooded the house with paint. All over the furniture, equipment, electronics, and everything else. He totally flipped.”
Cindy was shocked. The case went to court, but Cindy held out hope that this would be a turning point for Giroux, a fresh start, and that the two might be friends one day when they’d both moved on. But Giroux continued his downward spiral, repeatedly phoning and following Cindy until she finally had to file for protective court orders. Giroux repeatedly violated these orders and wound up under house arrest.
As much as Cindy tried to keep her private life out of her work, the others at her realty firm couldn’t help but know about what was happening. “With text messaging and other technology now,” says Mike, “it’s harder to leave domestic violence at home, because the perpetrator can get a hold of their victim.” Cindy’s co–workers pitched in to help clean her house and walked her to her car after work, and the company’s president even put her up at a rental property 30 miles away. But Giroux was obsessed, and months after being released from house arrest, he disguised himself, waited for Cindy to leave work, and shot her to death in the company parking lot before turning his gun on himself.
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