Families gather at Luminaria Festival in Nogales for Domestic Violence Awareness

NOGALES, Ariz. (KGUN) — Thursday night in Nogales families gathered at the Luminaria Festival to honor Domestic Violence Awareness and the loved ones they lost.

Dancers performed, the mayor spoke and families talked about their loved ones.

“She had a huge heart, and that was a downfall for her,” said Susan Stemper.

Stemper lost her daughter Marilynn Pacheco in 2019. She was a mother and a friend to many. She was driving down I-19 when she was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend.

“She never knew it was coming,” she said.

Now she’s giving the loss of her daughter a greater meaning by spreading awareness of what can happen.

“It is that serious, it’s not just ‘just’ abuse,” she said.

The P.A.I.R.S.study with Arizona State University is aiming to help family members like Susan Stemper prevent intimate partner homicides.

So far their study has identified over 1,200 homicides from 55 Arizona Police Departments, and of those homicides one in three were intimate partner homicides.

One-in-two female homicide victims were killed by intimate partners, and nearly half of the victims of intimate partner homicides experienced violence prior to the murder.

Now the study is hoping to speak to the family members of victims to study what risk factors were present prior to the murder.

Office of Gender Based Violence at ASU

“That will help us to create prevention interventions,” said Jill Messing, the ASU Office of Gender-Based Violence Director. She hopes “to identify those who are at high risk so that we can prevent homicides in the future.”

Stemper and her community are looking forward to telling their full stories to help the study in moving forward.

“The nerves, the anxiety to be able to do that, is so worth it if we can save somebody’s life,” she said.

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