GOSHEN – Over 800 t-shirts with names of domestic violence victims in Orange County lined the Route 207 side of the county government center in Goshen on Monday as Orange County Safe Homes resumed its awareness campaign.
A total of 24
people were killed in Orange County since 2004 at the hands of their
intimate partners.
Safe Homes Executive Director Kellyann Kostyal-Larrier told a ceremony that domestic violence hits all communities and all socio-economic levels.
“There is not a year that goes by that we wish that we don’t have to add a shirt to the line,” Kostyal-Larrier said. “But, it’s important that we don’t forget their names, that we remember, that we continue to do the work in their memory and in honor of those who continue to walk every single day in their survivorship.”
For retired state trooper James “Jimmy” O’Donnell of
Goshen, domestic violence is personal in that a fellow trooper was killed
in a domestic violence incident.
“Back on December 14, 1975, if you Google that in Sugar Loaf, New York, the only thing that will come up is Trooper William V. McDonagh being killed in the line of duty. He was my brother-in-law, my best friend, married to my sister,” O’Donnell said. “You have to search very deeply that you will find out that the person that killed him, Chris Georgeades, killed his girlfriend 10 minutes before that. Linda Manecke was a victim of domestic violence.”
Sheriff Carl DuBois and District Attorney David Hoovler said that too often people know of domestic violence, but do not report it. They urged friends and relations of victims to tell the police or other authorities to prevent another death.
Orange County has services to provide to victims included the newest, Safe Homes victims’ advocates embedded in the DA’s Office.
County Executive Steven Neuhaus summed up those who provide services for domestic violence victims as doing “God’s work.”
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