Crime victims' survivors remember loved ones

Survivors of Bea Beisly, whose July 15, 2009, murder near Deerfield is unsolved, take part in Tuesday's Annual Vernon County Crime Victims Rights Walk. About 80 people marched down Ash Street to the county courthouse, where a memorial ceremony was conducted.

Those who can no longer speak for themselves need someone to speak for them.

That's what Tuesday's annual Vernon County Crime Victims' Walk and memorial ceremony were about, showing the names, faces and dates of the deaths of 46 area men, women and children who had died at the hands of criminals since 1969.

"There will always be an empty place at the dinner table," said emcee Martha Sander of the Council on Families in Crisis.

Friends and relatives of area crime victims light candles Tuesday in 28th Circuit Court at Vernon County Courthouse as members of the Nevada High School Show Choir, directed by Wes Morton, sing "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

Quoting Fran Stone, mother of 1997 domestic violence victim Dana Southern Sisk and the grandmother of the 24-year-old Sisk's unborn child, Sander related a conversation Stone had at the cemetery with her surviving small grand-daughter.

"She asked, 'How long will Mommy be dead?'" Sander read from an account written by Stone. "She rubbed her fingers over and over the smooth gravestone and said, 'We're going to need a lot of m's because there are lots of m's in 'Mommy.'"

Led by county commissioners, city council members and the Nevada police and sheriff's officers, 80 people carrying placards and banners began the march at 6 p.m. outside Dr. Warren Lovinger's office at 625 S. Ash, heading north with a red and blue flashing police escort across Austin Boulevard to the Vernon County Courthouse and 28th Circuit Court.

The event was organized by the Vernon County Domestic Violence Task Force.

After the Nevada Police Color Guard had presented the colors and Calvary Baptist Church Pastor Terry Mosher had given the invocation, Cassie Moorhouse sang the National Anthem and Nevada High School Show Choir Director Wes Morton led the audience, by now increased to more than 100, in "God Bless America."

Presiding Commissioner Bonnie McCord and Mayor Brian Leonard read proclamations declaring National Crime Victims' Week, whose theme this year is "Extending the Vision: Reaching Every Victim."

Leonard gave the keynote address, saying the U.S. has made great strides in the past 30 years in dealing with the ramifications of crime.

"Florence Scovel Shinn (a philosopher who lived from 1871 to 1940) wrote, 'Every great work, every big accomplishment has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement comes apparent failure and discouragement," said Leonard.

"Victims were often excluded from courtrooms, disrespected by officials and afforded few rights. They began organizing to confront these challenges and to promote fair, compassionate and respectful responses to the victims of crime.

"Since the 1980s, the nation has made dramatic progress in securing rights, protections and services. Yet there is still so much to do. Victims' rights are not universal and are often not enforced. Only a fraction receive compensation, which is usually limited to victims of violent crime.

"More than 50 percent of crimes are still not reported and fewer than 20 percent of victims receive needed services."

Leonard said 8.1 million Americans were victimized by identity fraud in 2010 while people 12 and older experienced 188,380 rapes and sexual assaults and 3.4 million Americans 18 and older were stalked.

"Youths 12 to 19 with disabilities experienced violence at nearly twice the rate of those without a disability," the mayor said. "Of female murder victims in 2010, 37.5 percent were killed by a husband or boyfriend. Yet these are not just numbers, these numbers are people.

"They're our co-workers, neighbors and friends. Even more frightening, they are our family members. The faces of people we know and love in our own community are part of these numbers."

Sander played the song "Held" by Christian singer-songwriter Natalie Grant and participants lighted candles in memory of loved ones.

Throughout the hour-long ceremony, a video screen showed the names and faces of victims Timothy Bybee, Austin Lukenbill, Julie Newcome, Russell Clay, Susan Praiswater, Daulton Bybee, Juanita Cartwright, Melody Shreiweis, Linda Gast Coleman, Ruby Jean Cornell, Robert A. Zatarain, Freddy Ray Holman, Rainey Butterfield, Donalee Belcher Simpson, Sheryl Stewart Russell, Emily DeBrine, Corey Martin, Nancy Riggs, Annie Reed, Kylie Leyva and Russell Porter.

Others were Kelly Wolfe, David Mosher, T.J. Brandt, "Kathy," Jacob Crider, Shaffall Wolfe, Teresa Banes, Adam Hagerman, Sandy Steward, Tammy Stumpp, Mike Emery, Edgar Cornell, Tonya Lewis, Wayne Highley, George Schumann, Alex Thomas, Ashli O'Dell, Richard Armitage, Bea Beisly, Tasha Norris, Dennis Gibbs, "M.B." and Rebecca Porter.