By Amanda Hamon, IndyStar.com

The victims of domestic violence aren’t just the women who are beaten or worse by abusive boyfriends or husbands. They include the children, co-workers and others in the lives of the women assaulted.

That was the message at a rally against domestic violence held Thursday outside North United Methodist Church.

“We would like the community to understand that this is not a single, pocketed issue. It’s something that involves children, it impacts the workplace, it impacts men and women,” said Julie Marsh, CEO of the Domestic Violence Network.

More than 50 people took part in the rally.

In the past two months, three women in the Indianapolis metro area have been slain and their husbands or former husbands have been charged in their deaths. Angela Warnock, 38, was fatally stabbed June 21 in her Brownsburg home; in May, Amenda Yang, 43, was found dead from blunt-force trauma and strangulation in her Lawrence home; and a month later, Beth Stayer, 34, was fatally beaten with a hammer and tire iron in her Whitestown home.

Laurie Helms, a nursing manager at Clarian North Medical Center, said she was shocked and devastated when she learned her employee, Stayer, had been killed. Stayer left behind two young children.

“That’s what really killed us — that this is not what she would have wanted for her children,” Helms said.

Marsh said domestic abuse is not an issue that can be resolved overnight, but that it’s going to take long-term work to make a difference.

“We’re going to have a rally, then another rally, then another rally,” she said. “As we do that, more and more people will start to understand what domestic abuse is. More importantly, they’ll learn what they can do to help make everyone safe in the community.”

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