Victims of domestic violence were remembered during the annual Silent Witness Ceremony at the state capital Tuesday.
The names of the 26 women and six men who lost their lives as the result of domestic violence in 2008 were read aloud as a silhouette representing each person was carried down the steps of the State House.
A 33rd silhouette was included to represent the potential unknown victims.
Many of the victims’ family members attended the ceremony.
Jackie Hardy from Florence County lost his cousin, Lori McFadden, after police say she was assaulted and killed by her boyfriend Cleveland Burgess.
Burgess is awaiting trial on two counts of criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature and murder.
Hardy says McFadden’s boyfriend had beaten her many times, but that she would always take him back.
Hardy said, “We need to get through to the ones that are going through this and let them know this is not the answer. The answer is just getting away from that person” that is abusive.
In 2008, South Carolina ranked second nationally in the number of women killed by men in domestic violence per capita.
The state’s ranking has fallen to eighth this year.
Vicki Bourus, director of the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, says things are improving because more shelters and resources are available to battered women.
Bourus said, “We really need to look at doing something like a domestic violence fatality review so that we can carefully examine the deaths that we do have to see where that woman or that man fell through the safety net.”
She says it’s important for members of the community to be able to identify people who might be victims of domestic violence.
“The solution is to inform and activate every citizen in this state,” Bourus said. “If they’re a teacher, that they learn how to identify a child who may be suffering in a violent home and then take action to refer.”
The ceremony’s featured speaker was Dale Wells of Columbia who survived a violent attack by his former girlfriend.
Wells gave the crowd a graphic and detailed description of how his ex-girlfriend shot him five times with a .357 magnum at close range and then turned the gun on herself.
Wells says he thinks it was “God’s will” that he survived the attack and is able to share his story with others.
The Silent Witness Ceremony commemorated the first week of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
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