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by JENN WOOD
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Beneath a pale morning fog that clung to the South Carolina State House grounds, dozens of crimson silhouettes stood waiting in silence — each one representing a life lost to domestic violence in 2024. As the Palmetto State’s 28th annual Silent Witness Ceremony began, the haze slowly lifted – and by the time the first victim’s name was read aloud, sunlight had broken through the clouds, casting long shadows across the steps of the state capitol building.
S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson led the ceremony, drawing families, survivors, and advocates from across the state. One by one, as the names of each of the thirty-five women and eleven men were called, relatives carried life-sized silhouettes forward as a bell tolled in remembrance of their lives.
An additional unmarked figure was brought forward to symbolize victims whose stories may never be known…
“This ceremony reminds us that every life lost to domestic violence was a life of value and purpose,” Wilson said. “We honor their memory by strengthening our commitment to justice, protection, and the prevention of violence in our communities.”
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THE FACES BEHIND THE SILHOUETTES
Among the victims remembered were Jessica Barnes of Anderson County and Megan Bodiford of Bamberg County — two young women whose names FITSNews readers came to know through their heartbreaking stories.
Twenty-year-old Jessica Barnes, of Pendleton, disappeared on August 1, 2024. Two months later her mother, Cecilia Varvara, stood beside Pendleton police chief Robert Crosby as he announced the discovery of Jessica’s remains — and the arrest of her husband, Brandon Barnes, who confessed to strangling her to death.
Varvara’s faith was her foundation throughout the search for her daughter, and it remains her strength as she seeks justice in Jessica’s memory.
“I knew from the beginning that they did something to her,” she said, referring to Brandon Barnes and his two female accomplices, Kendall Mims and Victoria Tippett.
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Varvara, herself a survivor of domestic violence, had seen signs of the abuse long before Jessica’s disappearance. She said her daughter’s husband frequently isolated her from her close-knit family and that messages supposedly from Jessica didn’t sound like her — “mama” was suddenly spelled “momma,” for example.
Cecilia takes solace in knowing her daughter fought back — but she shouldn’t have had to.
“If you’re in an abusive relationship, if you’re in a controlling relationship, there is help,” she said. “I survived, she didn’t — and that’s why I’m here to speak for her and on her behalf.”
Even in grief, Varvara’s compassion remains intact.
“I would want them to find Jesus,” she said of the three charged in Jessica’s murder. “That’s what Jessica would want.”
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Jessica’s story has become emblematic of the silent escalation that too often precedes domestic homicide — a reminder that non-fatal strangulation is not only a form of control, but the strongest predictor of future murder.
So too was the story of Megan Bodiford, a 25-year-old mother of three from Denmark, South Carolina, whose disappearance in April 2024 drew statewide attention. Just hours before she vanished, Megan sent an ominous message to a friend:
“If you don’t hear from me in thirty minutes, he killed me,” Bodiford wrote. “He has a gun.”
Bodiford’s charred remains were later found inside a torched vehicle off Turn Ray Road — mere miles from home. Her boyfriend, Jarrett Haskell Davis, was charged with murder, arson and desecrating human remains after investigators determined he shot and killed Megan before setting her vehicle ablaze.
Friends told FITSNews they repeatedly warned law enforcement that Davis was violating parole and abusing Bodiford. Those warnings, like so many before them, went unheeded.
Both women’s names were read aloud Tuesday — their silhouettes carried by loved ones through sunlight and shadow. Their stories, once told on these pages as breaking news, now serve as haunting reminders of what can happen when the system fails to listen in time.
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RELATED | HORRIFIC END TO MISSING MOM STORY
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A SHAMEFUL SILENCE
Amid the ceremony’s reflections, advocates pointed to South Carolina’s continued legislative gaps — particularly the state’s failure to criminalize nonfatal strangulation, a red-flag offense that experts identify as the number one predictor of future homicide.
Attendee Brian Bennett, a longtime domestic violence reform advocate, voiced frustration over lawmakers’ ongoing inaction.
“It’s a shame we have some in government who speak so passionately and openly about reducing deaths due to fentanyl, sextortion and more,” Bennett said. “However, they remain completely silent on strangulation assaults which is the number one indicator of a future homicide, especially for women. South Carolina has been waiting for eight years for the passage of a strangulation law — that if passed would be the most significant bill to reduce homicides in decades.”
As FITSNews previously reported in “Strangled Voices,” South Carolina remains the only state in the nation without a felony-level strangulation statute. Current law references “impeding breathing” as an aggravating factor but stops short of defining strangulation as its own violent crime — a gap that has allowed abusers to avoid serious penalties even after near-lethal assaults.
That could change soon, though. A bill introduced by state senator Brian Adams would make strangulation a standalone felony carrying penalties of up to fifteen years. The bill, S. 455, was introduced last March and received a favorable report from the S.C. judiciary committee in late April.
Lawmakers and prosecutors agree the legislation fills a “critical hole” in South Carolina’s domestic violence framework.
Medical and law enforcement experts testified that victims who survive strangulation are 750 percent more likely to later be murdered by their abuser. If enacted, Adams’ bill would bring South Carolina in line with every other state in the nation – giving prosecutors a crucial intervention tool to use before abuse turns deadly.
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TURNING REMEMBRANCE INTO REFORM
As the final bell tolled and families placed flowers at the foot of the silhouettes, sunlight lingered on the capital steps — a brief brightness amid the dark clouds of grief.
For many in attendance, remembrance carried a clear mandate: to ensure that so many names read aloud this year are not echoed again next October.
After North Charleston Police sergeant James F. Ryan III played Amazing Grace on the bagpipe, the Silent Witness Ceremony ended as it began — in silence — broken only by the rustle of paper programs in the warm autumn breeze.
Until South Carolina’s long-awaited reforms become law, that silence remains both a memorial and a warning.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
As a private investigator turned journalist, Jenn Wood brings a unique skill set to FITSNews as its research director. Known for her meticulous sourcing and victim-centered approach, she helps shape the newsroom’s most complex investigative stories while producing the FITSFiles and Cheer Incorporated podcasts. Jenn lives in South Carolina with her family, where her work continues to spotlight truth, accountability, and justice.
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6 comments
Pass the reforms all you want. It will change nothing. The dynamics that make up these fatal incidents will not go away because a few suits passed some papers around and get them rubber stamped by other suits.
Abusive men (and women), often fueled by substance abuse, will still be there, as will the substances. The ditzy women who want “a bad boy” will still be out there looking for bad boys while turning away better choices. Once they realize they cannot control their prized catch, they will expect the police, the courts, and society to control him for them. When they predictably fail, more cut outs for these ceremonies will be needed.
More laws will fix nothing. At best they will create more hapless victims of a revolving door criminal “justice” system whose lives will be negatively impacted by loss of rights, temporary loss of freedom, and difficulty finding a decent job. Assault is illegal already. Murder is illegal already. They made stalking illegal. Violating restraining orders is illegal. The first two are basics. The latter two, in a manner of speaking, are add-ons. If someone violates the first two, does anyone believe the latter two will be any more difficult to violate?
People need to parent their daughters. Raise them to at least have a nodding acquaintance with logic and common sense. Raise them to understand boundaries and when “enough is enough”. Raise them to not be ditzy air heads who look for the bad boys and refuse to break free once the danger and abuse are apparant. Teach them self defense skills, with or without weapons; not the weak stuff from community meetings, but stuff like eye gouges, throat punches, nut twists, and bullet placement, and situational awareness. This is probably the greatest thing you can do to keep your daughters safe; not waiting on government to make more laws that will change nothing.
Interesting.
But the money that the state gets from the federal budget and programs directed towards these convictions only sweetens the pot for our legislature.
They barely even have the story go to trial, they’ll just hold you until you plea or wait you out until you get in trouble again or break a restraining order. If you seemingly pass those test then they get creative to capture a conviction.
That is if your innocent, if your guilty they’ll put you on trial in two weeks with no hesitation.
Well said, LaketahoeZ!
Also I dont want to muddy the heart of this story, Domestics are a problematic for a family and a family member, parent or child whose life is taken due to the emotional response by a loved one, one whose main job is supposed to hold the supreme trust and safety of thier family.
The world is already hard out there and children need safety at home. It’s just as damaging to fabricate the scenario of abuse to a child and anyone involved with that side of domestic have no business being in our schools, being in our law enforcement or being in our public office or our courts.
Again, excellent points, LaketahoeZ!