VALDOSTA — Plans are under way to honor friends and neighbors lost to domestic violence and raise awareness of the seemingly rapidly spreading problem.

A few weeks ago, several concerned citizens from Lowndes, Lanier, Brooks, Berrien and Cook counties joined forces to form the Silent Witness Project. This volunteer-only group works to ensure those who have lost their lives at the hands of a spouse, boyfriend or acquaintance are not forgotten.

“We want to allow their voices to continue to be heard,” said Leah McMillan, Silent Witness Project spokesperson.

The Silent Witness Project will accomplish this through the creation of life-sized, red figures of women — and possibly a male — who have been murdered in acts of domestic violence. Each figure will feature a breastplate shield containing a victim’s name and story.

McMillan said the Silent Witness Project’s goal is to create 20 figures by Oct. 1 and the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Throughout the year, these figures will be displayed as a collective unit and individually at various area locations.

“It’ll be a very powerful exhibit,” she added. “Unfortunately, there will always be another figure to build.”

Donations of time and money are needed to make the Silent Witness Project a success, McMillan said. Each figure costs $40 to build and volunteers are needed to help transport them throughout the area for display. Ninety to 95 percent of domestic violence victims are female while, as many as 95 percent of domestic violence perpetrators are male, according to the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence.

A large proportion of the killings by women are acts of self-defense, while almost none of the killings by men are acts of self-defense, according to the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence. However, defensive action by battered women to protect themselves or their children is often interpreted by law enforcement as an act of domestic violence itself.



THE INITIATIVE BEGINS

Concerned about the growing number of women in Minnesota murdered by boyfriends, husbands or acquaintances, a group of women artists and writers formed Arts Action Against Domestic Violence.

According to the Silent Witness National Initiative, “they felt an urgency to do something that would speak out against the escalating domestic violence in their state ….” These women wanted to do something to commemorate the 26 women whose lives had been lost in 1990 as a result of domestic violence.

Arts Action Against Domestic Violence decided to create 26 free-standing, life-sized, red wooden figures, each one bearing the name of “a woman who once lived, worked, had neighbors, friends, family, children — whose life ended violently at the hands of a husband, ex-husband, partner or acquaintance,” Silent Witness National Initiative officials stated. A 27th figure was added to represent those uncounted women whose murders were unsolved or “erroneously ruled accidental.”

Among the original 27 witnesses, known as Silent Witnesses, were:

– Lucy Simonson, 40, was the mother of a daughter and two sons. On July 22, 1990, she was leaving her home in Sunfish Lake with her sons when her husband put a gun to her head. When the shot was fired, her 7-year-old son was holding her hand. Her husband was charged with first- and second-degree murder in her death and later committed suicide.

– Barbara Newton, 35, worked in the Hennepin County Government Center. On June 20, 1990, her throat was slashed as she arrived for work. She had gone to court the day before she died for an order to protect her from her former boyfriend. He was charged with first- and second-degree murder. The protection order was signed by a judge two hours after she died.

– Beverly Miller, 16, was a teenager living in Roseville. On June 10, 1990, she was stabbed 22 times in a triple stabbing that left her sister and a friend injured. She died wrapped in a blanket on the sofa. Her sister’s former boyfriend, previously charged with domestic assault, was charged with first-degree murder in her death.

According to the Silent Witness National Initiative, on Feb. 18, 1991, more than 500 women met a church across the street from the Minnesota State Capitol with the figures. A silent procession led to the figures being escorted across the street, up the steps and into the capitol rotunda.

“The sheer volume of space the figures occupied spoke of their power … and the loss,” Silent Witness National Initiative officials stated. “The original 27 women whose murders started the whole initiative have prevailed. Their stories have been heard across the country and they are calling for the healing to continue until there are no more domestic murders and no more domestic violence.”