My sister has been married to DH for 15 years. He always seemed very nice, family orientated, and DSis was happy.
After they had children, he became more and more aggressive and eventually managed to make her cut all ties with friends. He tried to do the same with family by making her have separate phones for him and us etc., but thus far he has failed to do so. He also controls everything that she does, even picks out her clothes.
Recently he has been getting worse and DSis is becoming more and more reclusive. She was once an outgoing, confident, extrovert and now she is merely a shell of that. She won't talk to me about anything but I can tell that things are getting worse. Niece (10) is starting to act out and cry a lot and has recently told me she hates being at home. Nephew (13) is moody and irritable, but that could just be general teenage behaviour.
I have no reason to believe that he has been physically abusive, although the way things have been recently I wouldn't put it past him.
I really don't know what to do to help. As her younger sister, she doesn't want to listen to my advice because she thinks that I 'just don't understand'. I don't want to push her further from family and even more towards him. She won't leave him because as far as she is concerned, she has no way of doing so financially. I think she's also worried that he'll just follow her wherever she goes, but she won't say that.