The area’s domestic violence and sexual assault shelter, the ARK, commemorated Domestic Violence Awareness Month on Thursday with a candlelight vigil to honor those who lost their lives due to domestic violence.

Brownwood Police Chief Mike Corley was the guest speaker at the event held at Howard Payne University’s Girling Center for Social Justice.

Instead the normal “chief of police” speech about domestic violence prevention and awareness, Chief Corley told a personal story of how his family has been directly affected by domestic violence.

“I’ve never told this story in public before, this will be the first time,” Corley said. “I really firmly believe that it is my duty, all of our duty, to take a negative and try to turn it into a positive if I can.”

Corley told the story of his wife Cheryl’s sister who was a victim of domestic violence.

“She married a jerk and I knew from the beginning,” Corley said.

Corley’s sister-in-law lived in Midland at the time and the family saw signs of abuse and domestic violence when they visited.

Corley said they tried to talk to his sister-in-law about leaving the abusive situation, but she would not do it.    Corley said that she finally left her abusive husband and later remarried.    Corley said that her ex-husband later served jail time for various offenses.

Corley said that his sister-in-law and her new family eventually moved to Richardson where the Corley’s were living at the time.

In January 1999, Corley’s sister-in-law was leaving for work early one morning when her ex-husband confronted her at her car.

“He shot her with a shotgun and killed her,” Corley said.  “My mother-in-law came running out to see what happened and he shot and killed her.”

Corley said that a family friend was in the house and the ex-husband went in and killer her as well.

Corley’s nephew, who was 14 at the time, was home when his mother and grandmother were killed, Corley said.

“My nephew made it out the window and actually waited on the roof of the house until the police got there,” Corley said.

Corley said that the ex-husband took his own life during the incident as well.

“After it happened, I kept waiting for the time when things would get back to normal,” Corley said. “But that doesn’t happen.  Your life is never the same after that.”

Corley said that he wants to share his story openly to help bring awareness to the problem of domestic violence.

“I’ve given lots of talks in lots of places, but this is one of the hardest things to talk about in public,” Corley said.  “I want to do that, I thought this was a good time to bring it out for awareness, for people to know that it is a real problem, that it can happen to anybody.”

The names of domestic violence victims killed in Brown County were read aloud  to conclude the ceremony as those in attendance honored those victims with a minute of silence and lighting of candles.

The mission of the Pecan Valley Regional Domestic Violence Shelter, Inc., dba, The ARK is to provide safe shelter and comprehensive resident and non-resident services through advocacy, referrals and education to support and empower victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault, one family at a time.

Those needing to contact the ARK can call 325-643-2699 or 888-313-2699.

Photo at top shows Chief Corley listening as the names of domestic violence victims from the area are read.

See video below for the introduction and statistics of domestic violence in the area.

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