A red silhouette representing Mary Marshall Lands will join others as a reminder that domestic violence can be a deadly crime. The silhouette and a new hot air balloon will remain in the community to represent the woman who disappeared from her Marshall home in 2004.
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S.A.F.E. Place Shelter announced the commemorative gesture to add Lands to the county’s Silent Witness National Initiative at a small gathering Tuesday which included the media, a few law enforcement officials and Mary Lands’ mother and father.
Also at the press event, private investigator Jim Carlin announced that he is raising money to build a customized hot air balloon with Lands’ picture and the logo of the S.A.F.E. Place Shelter for domestic violence victims.
The announcements came during national Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
The red silhouette representing Lands bears a plaque asking that her disappearance be a reminder of the national issue of domestic violence. The national initiative to create stand-up display silhouettes representing murder victims of domestic violence started in 1990.
It started in Calhoun County a few years ago, and 10 people have been commemorated, said S.A.F.E. Place Executive Director Jennifer Fopma.
“We can’t allow another beautiful young woman to disappear,” Fopma said. “We can honor Mary today and every day by giving her a voice. Let’s give her the voice that she deserves and end domestic violence.”
Lands, 39, disappeared on March 12, 2004. Her boyfriend, Christopher Pratt, told police he and Lands argued and she walked away from their home in Marshall.
No one has been charged in the disappearance and a body has never been found. Nonetheless, the case has been classified by the Marshall Police Department as a homicide.
Carlin, who has been working on the Lands case, said he and the family have medical records and other evidence to prove Lands was in an abusive relationship with Pratt.
Pratt currently is in prison for assaulting Norreen Parker, a woman he dated after Lands. He has denied any involvement in Lands’ disappearance.
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“We need to continue to write letters to the parole board and ask that he remain in prison,” Carlin said. “But today is not specifically about Christopher Luke Pratt. It’s about victims of domestic violence.”
More than 1,500 victims sought help from the S.A.F.E. Place Shelter last year. Eighty-five percent of victims of domestic violence are women, Fopma said.
“The most common question I’m asked is, ‘Why does she stay? Why doesn’t she just leave?'” Fopma said. “Let me challenge you. One out of every four women is a domestic violence victim or survivor. If an armed gunman came in and shot one out of every four women, would we ask, ‘Why wasn’t she wearing a bulletproof vest?'”
Fatality increases by 75 percent for victims who try to leave, Fopma said. In Mary Lands’ case, her family never knew she was abused, said her father, Clifford Marshall.
“The bad thing is when she decided to leave that night, that was the end of it,” Marshall said. “There’s no doubt in my mind. He wasn’t going to let her go.”
Those who are suffering from domestic violence should call the police, or at least tell their family, Marshall said.
“If Mary would have told me the truth, she knows — and everyone that knows me knows — that that would not have went on,” Marshall said. “That would have been stopped instantly.”
Sarah Lambert can be reached at 966-0589 or slambert@battlecreekenquirer.com.
“We need to continue to write letters to the parole board and ask that he remain in prison,” Carlin said. “But today is not specifically about Christopher Luke Pratt. It’s about victims of domestic violence.”
More than 1,500 victims sought help from the S.A.F.E. Place Shelter last year. Eighty-five percent of victims of domestic violence are women, Fopma said.
“The most common question I’m asked is, ‘Why does she stay? Why doesn’t she just leave?'” Fopma said. “Let me challenge you. One out of every four women is a domestic violence victim or survivor. If an armed gunman came in and shot one out of every four women, would we ask, ‘Why wasn’t she wearing a bulletproof vest?'”
Fatality increases by 75 percent for victims who try to leave, Fopma said. In Mary Lands’ case, her family never knew she was abused, said her father, Clifford Marshall.
“The bad thing is when she decided to leave that night, that was the end of it,” Marshall said. “There’s no doubt in my mind. He wasn’t going to let her go.”
Those who are suffering from domestic violence should call the police, or at least tell their family, Marshall said.
“If Mary would have told me the truth, she knows — and everyone that knows me knows — that that would not have went on,” Marshall said. “That would have been stopped instantly.”
