Shannon Stafford’s Story Airs Tonight on Discovery ID “Evil In-Law” Episode

Three days from now, many of you will sit at a kitchen table enjoying fellowship and food. Or you will gather around a Christmas tree shredding wrapping paper, hoping to see what gifts await. But somewhere, the stress will be too much, and a weapon will be pulled out–one man’s fists, another man’s pistol–turning holiday cheer into deadly fear.

Crime increases during the holidays, especially family violence. On average, 24 people–mostly women–are murdered in West Virginia every year. Some of those deaths occur near major holidays. At two deaths a month, that number has remained steady since the 1970s, thanks to domestic violence. I’ve lived it, as have all of my siblings and my children. So have many of you. Whether you grew up in West Virginia or elsewhere, you have been at the receiving end of a pattern of abuse that was designed to keep you quiet.

Shannon Stafford knew what that cycle of abuse was like, and she stayed silent throughout the last few torturous years of her young life. Shannon grew up in Preston County, W.Va., where she attended school with my daughters. She was killed in cold blood April 21, 2012, when her father-in-law, Larry Mitchell, gunned her down in a local Wal-Mart parking lot. Equally tragic is that some people say her toddler daughter, Faith, was nearby when Shannon was killed, execution-style.

Tonight the world will finally have a chance to see Shannon’s story on national television. When a Discovery ID producer emailed me in May to see if I would agree to be interviewed, I was ecstatic. I had blogged extensively about her, but even those pieces failed to capture the attention of the media big wigs. It was a story that seemed to die a natural death, like these stories do, in spite of having all of the elements that capture and hold people’s attention long after they stop reading. Or watching.

But that’s all changed now–because producer Colleen Waltner resurrected the tragic story. People will finally learn about Shannon’s short life–and the disturbing events involving her daughter–when Shannon’s story receives the media coverage it deserves. I hope you’ll watch “Evil In-Law” with me when it airs at 9 p.m. ET tonight.

I also hope Shannon’s story stays with you as you partake in the week’s upcoming festivities. Maybe tonight’s show will even cause you call to mind someone in your life who might need your help. Who might not be experiencing the joy you are, because they live in constant fear—like Shannon did. If that does happen, I hope you’ll use this time to give tat person the gift they most need: your spoken support and ongoing, active encouragement.

* * * *

My next book, Guilt by Matrimony, about the murder of Aspen socialite, Nancy Pfister, comes out November 17. My memoir, Sister of Silence, is about surviving domestic violence and how journalism helped free me; Cheatin’ Ain’t Easy, now in ebook format, is about the life of Preston County native, Eloise Morgan Milne; The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese (a New York Times bestseller, with coauthor Geoff Fuller) and Pretty Little Killers (also with Fuller), released July 8, 2014, and featured in the August 18 issue of People Magazine.

You can find these books either online or in print at a bookstore near you, at BenBella Books, Nellie Bly Books, Amazon, on iTunes and Barnes and Noble.

For an in-depth look at the damaging effects of the silence that surrounds abuse, please watch my live TEDx talk, given April 13, 2013, at Connecticut College.

Have a great day and remember, it’s whatever you want to make it!

~Daleen

Editor’s Note: Daleen Berry is a New York Times best-selling author and a recipient of the Pearl Buck Award in Writing for Social Change. She has won several other awards, for investigative journalism and her weekly newspaper columns, and her memoir, Sister of Silence, placed first in the West Virginia Writers’ Competition. Ms. Berry speaks about overcoming abuse through awareness, empowerment and goal attainment at conferences around the country. To read an excerpt of her memoir, please go to the Sister of Silence site. Check out the five-star review from ForeWord Reviews. Or find out why Kirkus Reviews called Ms. Berry “an engaging writer, her style fluid and easy to read, with welcome touches of humor and sustained tension throughout.”