COLUMBIA — When pastor Stewart Rawson first met Sherri Redmond, he thought it was strange that her ex-husband lived with her.
“I soon learned that that was who Sherri is: kind to a fault, generous to her own demise,” Rawson said Tuesday.
Redmond’s ex was sick and had nowhere else to live, the pastor said. So, she let him stay. But two weeks before Christmas last year, Redmond was found shot to death in her Sumter home. Prosecutors charged her ex-husband with the crime, said Rawson, who leads the congregation at Sumter’s First Presbyterian Church.
The 79-year-old was one of 46 people killed in domestic violence cases across South Carolina in 2024 honored during a Tuesday ceremony.
How to get help
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
Find local resources through the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Source: South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
For more than two decades, South Carolina was among states with the highest rates of women killed by men, including multiple years with the highest rate in the nation. Although the state’s rate has improved, it remained above the national average in 2023, with 1.8 of every 100,000 women killed by a man, according to the most recent report available through the Violence Policy Center.
Attorney General Alan Wilson called the names of each of the 46 victims — 35 women and 11 men — killed in incidents of domestic violence last year, as volunteers, family and friends carried cutouts representing their loved ones to stand behind him.
The Silent Witness Ceremony, which is in its 28th year, is meant to honor those victims and their families, as well as survivors of domestic violence. The ceremony, which drew several hundred people to the Statehouse on Tuesday, also brings attention to an issue that can easily get overlooked because it often happens within a person’s home, Wilson said.
Of the people honored Tuesday, 91% were killed at home. Half were parents who left behind children, Wilson said.
“This is not the future our children deserve,” Wilson said.
Laws to protect people from domestic violence are in place, but local law enforcement departments need officers who are ready to arrest those suspected of committing domestic abuse, prosecutors need to be prepared to support victims, and the General Assembly needs to elect judges who will give convicted abusers strong enough sentences to deter them from reoffending, Wilson said.
Providing resources for people with mental health issues that may affect their relationships and educating the public about how to identify domestic abuse are also important steps, Wilson said.
“At the end of the day, there are always going to be people who are going to break the law and try to skirt the system, and we want people out there who are being victimized to know that there is a way out,” Wilson said.
The ceremony served as a reminder that those killed had full lives that ended too soon, Wilson said.
Redmond, for instance, ran the kitchen at her Sumter church, “which made her a very important person,” Rawson said. She exhibited a classic Southern hospitality, even though she was born in Ohio. She left behind three adult sons, according to her obituary.
“We have a right to life, to our liberty, to our own pursuit of happiness,” Rawson said. “Many like Sherri do not have the opportunity to enjoy such freedoms, and sometimes, it’s the kind, tender, loving, forgiving heart of someone like Sherri that has to endure the unthinkable.”
There are many reasons a person experiencing domestic abuse might not tell anyone, said Niwdayra Tapia, a podcast host and survivor of domestic violence who lives in Columbia. For her, she didn’t want to see her ex-boyfriend go to jail, and she worried about what others might think of her, she said.
“I understand that sometimes it’s not as simple to let go of someone that you love and have devoted your time and energy to,” Tapia said. “However, love is not supposed to hurt, to make you feel depressed, stressed or worthless.”
After all 46 cutouts representing people killed had been placed, organizers brought a 47th out to represent those whose deaths went unrecognized or unreported as domestic violence.
“For all of those names that have been read, there are assuredly countless others that we do not know about,” said Rabbi Erik Uriarte, from Tree of Life Congregation in Columbia. “Because for every physical manifestation of that violence that appears on bodies, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of wounds that afflict us mentally, emotionally, socially, financially.”
Skylar Laird covers the South Carolina Legislature and criminal justice issues. Originally from Missouri, she previously worked for The Post and Courier’s Columbia bureau.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
