BECKLEY -- It's the time of year when domestic violence is in a month-long spotlight. There is free help available for victims of domestic violence and that assistance is just a phone call away.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In Raleigh County, it's off to a deadly start. Police said a young woman was killed by a former boyfriend in Beckley this past Sunday.
Patricia Bailey, the director of the Women's Resource Center, said this crime underscores the persistent problem with domestic violence.
"There's only three ways that a domestic violence relationship is going to end, either the batterer is going to quit battering, the victim is going leave the relationship, or somebody is going to die," said Bailey.
Bailey heads up the Women's Resource Center in Raleigh County, a shelter for victims of domestic violence. Bailey said the most recent statistics for West Virginia are more than sad, she said they're downright sobering.
"We just got the numbers this morning. 29 dead in the last 12 months in West Virginia. That's 113 dead since October of 2007. It's got to stop," Bailey said.
Bailey said Domestic Violence Awareness Month is about spreading the word that there is help available to escape a violent situation.
She said the hope is to help victims find the courage to make the most difficult step of all: walking away from the situation.
"That's just the hardest thing, is to hear somebody say, ‘Well, I wish we'd known where to turn or I wish … we'd been able to say to a Women's Resource Center or we just didn't know you were there,’ that's the worst, knowing that somebody's life has been lost or somebody didn't get the help that they needed just because they didn't know," said Bailey.
Bailey adds that there is an annual Domestic Violence Candlelight Vigil planned later this month. It's going to be held on the campus of Mountain State University in the John Eye Conference Center in Beckley on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Anyone in the region who needs help to escape a domestic violence situation is urged to call the Women's Resource Center. It is manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
That phone number is 304-255-2559.
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