ILLUSTRATION BY LISA MONTANARO
nati, Ohio. When her 19-year-old daugh-
ter was murdered almost a decade ago,
many of her companions backed away,
she says.
Awash with grief and feeling aban-
doned, Ms. Goldsmith and the mother
of another murdered 19-year-old creat-
ed a chapter of POMC in Baton Rouge,
Ms. Goldsmith says her experiences
where they were living at the time.
have unleashed a twisted truth
"My child was dead and I wasn't go- about society's attitudes toward mur-
ing to bring her back. I wanted to do der.
something. We knew that there were
"Murder is a dirty word and there is
other people out there with no place to a stigma attached to its victims. People
go," she says.
wonder what the victim was doing
wrong. Did he pick a fight? Was she a;
somewhere she shouldn't have been? I
have found," Ms. Goldsmith says "that ct
across the country most people have
trouble dealing with survivors of people (._)
who were murdered.
Those who back away, Ms. Goldsmith
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