Domestic violence protest following killing of Bangor woman

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) – Around 50 people gathered for an emotional protest in downtown Bangor on Tuesday.

Every October, domestic violence advocacy group Finding Our Voices hosts events across the state. When they learned of the death of 39-year-old Virginia Cookson, they decided to stand alongside her family and other supporters to protest a death that they said should never have happened.

“And finding out that he should have been in prison until 2027 and then somehow let out, which I kind of don’t mind because they always let these guys out earlier. We just felt like we needed to pay more attention to this issue,” says Patricia McLean, founder of Finding Our Voices.

McLean says there are victims with similar stories.

Like Dezaree Caron, who says she tried to help her best friend Darcia Ann Maney, who was married to and violently abused by Richard Thorpe, who is accused of killing Cookson.

“The fact that he still got out and did that even after people told him he was going to kill someone. This should never have happened,” said Caron, also a survivor.

Maney says her goal now is to come together and talk about domestic violence and for Cookson.

“To be a voice for this woman. For others.”

“The devastation is real. The emotional reaction is real, and even more so for the friends and family, and we just want people to know that for anyone affected by this traffic tragedy, we are here for you 24/7,” says Casey Faulkingham of Partners for Peace.

“Things have to change and a moment of silence, as is usually called for in such things, is not enough. We have to be loud. It's time to speak very, very loudly about how the outrage over this beautiful young woman, 39 years old, mother, has disappeared,” says McLean.

Copyright 2024 WABI. All rights reserved.