Harriet_Eagle
New Member
MOLLY ANN BISH (16) - lifeguard abducted from her post at Comins Pond in Warren 06/27/00; remains identified 06/09/03
WARREN, Massachusetts
Families unite in grief and loss
Loved ones attend crime victims' vigils and tell stories of violence and sadness
COLONIE -- Liza Warner rests in peace, but her mother's pain over her murder is no less raw than that of Doug and Mary Lyall, who still wait for word of their daughter Suzanne, missing for seven years.
On Sunday in Saratoga Springs, at the annual candlelight vigil for crime victims, Martha Lasher-Warner told the story of Liza Warner, who was killed in October by her husband.
In Latham on Sunday, the Lyalls led the fourth annual state Missing Persons' Day. Some of the parents who stood alongside the Lyalls already know the fate of their missing loved one; John and Magi Bish of West Warren, Mass., buried their daughter Molly after she was missing for three years.
Lasher-Warner recounted talking to her daughter the night she was killed. Warner called to tell her mother that she had installed new deadbolts to keep her abusive husband out of their house. After he broke through the back door "with such force, it took the deadbolts off their hinges," Russell Warner shot his 29-year-old wife to death before turning the gun on himself at the couple's home in Princetown, Lasher Warner said.
"At 10 o'clock she said, 'I love you mommy'... by 11 she was dead," she said through tears at the Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church on Circular Street. A scroll inscribed with the names of New York's crime victims was rolled out in front of Lasher-Warner, its length reaching the end of the church pews.
Amid a gathering of elected officials and families and friends of crime victims, Peter Keenan cried quietly throughout the vigil. When the time came to light candles and speak about the victims, he named Laurie DiLorenzo and described the Glens Falls woman as his soulmate. DiLorenzo was shot and killed, allegedly by her estranged husband, in February.
The vigils were not limited to people affected by the loss of loved ones. Mark Gauthier, 45, of Colonie, told the story of the 1971 car crash that took both his legs when he was 11. He was collecting a pizza for his family when a drunken driver collided with the deliveryman's car, pinning Gauthier. He almost died in the hospital, and doctors were forced to amputate his legs near the hip because of gangrene, Gauthier said. Sunday, he attended the vigil with his wife, Myrtle, and 13-year-old daughter, Sarah. Gauthier seizes any opportunity to educate people about the dangers of driving drunk, he said.
The Lyalls and the Bish family channel their grief into organizations that both help other families of missing people and keep their daughters' faces in the public eye.
While the Lyalls know nothing about their daughter's whereabouts, the Bishes are still looking for Molly Bish's killer.
"Every time we talk to a new family, we relive what happened to us," said Doug Lyall. "But we can offer understanding and advice because we've been there and it makes us feel good about what we're doing, even if in our own situation we're helpless."
John and Magi Bish founded The Molly Bish Center for the Protection of Children and Elderly at Anna Maria College. Magi Bish said they have distributed 90,000 child identification kits.
She carries small cards in her purse inscribed with a prayer and a photograph of her daughter dressed up for a prom, taken shortly before she was abducted. Mother and daughter look alike, sharing the same jaw line and blond hair.
"I cut mine a little shorter, so I would look just a little more like her," Magi Bish said.
Family and friends of Audrey Herron wear her picture on their T-shirts. Herron went missing Aug. 29, 2002. Her husband, Jeff; sister-in-law, Stacy Herron; and mother-in-law, Patricia Conrad, were at Missing Persons Day on Sunday. Stacy Herron is preparing to participate in Sara's Ride for Missing Children, a memorial bicycle trek named for Sara Anne Wood.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/st...ategory=REGION&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=4/11/2005
WARREN, Massachusetts
Families unite in grief and loss
Loved ones attend crime victims' vigils and tell stories of violence and sadness
COLONIE -- Liza Warner rests in peace, but her mother's pain over her murder is no less raw than that of Doug and Mary Lyall, who still wait for word of their daughter Suzanne, missing for seven years.
On Sunday in Saratoga Springs, at the annual candlelight vigil for crime victims, Martha Lasher-Warner told the story of Liza Warner, who was killed in October by her husband.
In Latham on Sunday, the Lyalls led the fourth annual state Missing Persons' Day. Some of the parents who stood alongside the Lyalls already know the fate of their missing loved one; John and Magi Bish of West Warren, Mass., buried their daughter Molly after she was missing for three years.
Lasher-Warner recounted talking to her daughter the night she was killed. Warner called to tell her mother that she had installed new deadbolts to keep her abusive husband out of their house. After he broke through the back door "with such force, it took the deadbolts off their hinges," Russell Warner shot his 29-year-old wife to death before turning the gun on himself at the couple's home in Princetown, Lasher Warner said.
"At 10 o'clock she said, 'I love you mommy'... by 11 she was dead," she said through tears at the Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church on Circular Street. A scroll inscribed with the names of New York's crime victims was rolled out in front of Lasher-Warner, its length reaching the end of the church pews.
Amid a gathering of elected officials and families and friends of crime victims, Peter Keenan cried quietly throughout the vigil. When the time came to light candles and speak about the victims, he named Laurie DiLorenzo and described the Glens Falls woman as his soulmate. DiLorenzo was shot and killed, allegedly by her estranged husband, in February.
The vigils were not limited to people affected by the loss of loved ones. Mark Gauthier, 45, of Colonie, told the story of the 1971 car crash that took both his legs when he was 11. He was collecting a pizza for his family when a drunken driver collided with the deliveryman's car, pinning Gauthier. He almost died in the hospital, and doctors were forced to amputate his legs near the hip because of gangrene, Gauthier said. Sunday, he attended the vigil with his wife, Myrtle, and 13-year-old daughter, Sarah. Gauthier seizes any opportunity to educate people about the dangers of driving drunk, he said.
The Lyalls and the Bish family channel their grief into organizations that both help other families of missing people and keep their daughters' faces in the public eye.
While the Lyalls know nothing about their daughter's whereabouts, the Bishes are still looking for Molly Bish's killer.
"Every time we talk to a new family, we relive what happened to us," said Doug Lyall. "But we can offer understanding and advice because we've been there and it makes us feel good about what we're doing, even if in our own situation we're helpless."
John and Magi Bish founded The Molly Bish Center for the Protection of Children and Elderly at Anna Maria College. Magi Bish said they have distributed 90,000 child identification kits.
She carries small cards in her purse inscribed with a prayer and a photograph of her daughter dressed up for a prom, taken shortly before she was abducted. Mother and daughter look alike, sharing the same jaw line and blond hair.
"I cut mine a little shorter, so I would look just a little more like her," Magi Bish said.
Family and friends of Audrey Herron wear her picture on their T-shirts. Herron went missing Aug. 29, 2002. Her husband, Jeff; sister-in-law, Stacy Herron; and mother-in-law, Patricia Conrad, were at Missing Persons Day on Sunday. Stacy Herron is preparing to participate in Sara's Ride for Missing Children, a memorial bicycle trek named for Sara Anne Wood.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/st...ategory=REGION&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=4/11/2005
