Warren observes Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Crime Victims Rights Week with Silent Witnesses

  • Published
  • By Capt. Michelle Clark
  • 90th Missile Wing Judge Advocate
F. E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. --  They stand among us here and throughout Air Force Global Strike Command. They were neighbors, friends and sisters. They were women and children who died at the hands of their husbands, boyfriends and father-figures. Now, they are the Silent Witnesses.

Several times each year, some of these life-size, red, wooden figures come to F. E. Warren as part of our observances of Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Crime Victims Rights Week. Each Silent Witness bears a shield with the name and story of the domestic violence victim it commemorates.

The mission of the Silent Witness Initiative is to "promote peace, healing and responsibility in intimate relationships in order to eliminate domestic violence." Much like Mothers Against Drunk Driving has helped to drastically reduce teenage drunk driving fatalities, the Silent Witness Initiative is helping to change the public attitude toward, and thereby decrease, domestic violence. Over the past four years, domestic homicide rates have dropped more than 25 percent.

The Silent Witness Initiative began in Minnesota in 1990 when a group of women angered by the then growing number of women being murdered at the hands of their partners decided to take action. The women created the first 27 Silent Witness silhouettes, and the following year marched the witnesses to the state capital along with 500 supporters in silent protest of domestic violence.

In 1997, the Silent Witness Initiative came to Wyoming. Since 1985, approximately 70 women and children have been killed as a result of domestic violence statewide. Victims range in age from 5- to 76-years-old. The murderers of these women and children shot, beat, stabbed, strangled, ran them over with a vehicle, or pushed them off a cliff. Each of these victims is now memorialized as a Wyoming Silent Witness.

Five-year-old Brandy Jo Imhoff's silhouette tells a child's story. Brandy was murdered when she tried to intervene when her mother was being beaten by her boyfriend, Mark Barnes. Barnes severely beat Brandy, and then threw her outside in the middle of winter. Brandy died sometime that night. Her body was then hidden in a cupboard for a week before Mark set fire to the house.

At 2 p.m. Oct. 27 in the Pronghorn Center, stand face-to-face with Brandy Jo and the other Silent Witnesses visiting F. E. Warren, read their stories and Take A Stand Against Domestic Violence. For more information on this event, contact Bonnie Scotto, Victim and Witness Assistance Program Coordinator at 773-6052 or Glenn Garcia, Family Advocacy Program Outreach Manager at 773-6278.