Sep 29, 2016 4 min read

Tears welled in Michelle Leichty’s eyes, then overflowed onto her cheeks.

“I’m fine until I start talking personally about it. It’s when I start talking about Tierne personally that …” Leichty said, her voice trailing off.

Leichty was referring to Tierne Ewing, who was murdered Aug. 30. Her husband, Kevin Ewing, then took his own life in a barn in West Finley Township after a daylong manhunt by police.

What police feared could become a standoff took place after Kevin Ewing, 48, had abducted his wife at gunpoint, cutting off an electronic monitor a judge had ordered him to wear because of pending domestic violence charges. Kevin Ewing was awaiting trial because he had, Tierne Ewing told police, held her hostage for nearly two weeks from the end of June into July, threatening to kill her, striking her and branding her with a hot dog skewer.

Leichty, who now lives in Eighty Four, has known Tierne Kopko Ewing’s family for many years, graduating from McGuffey High School with Tierne Ewing’s younger sister.

“I think for years we all tried to do more,” Leichty said. “Unless you’re a family member of someone in that situation or a friend, you really have no idea what it’s like. (Tierne) was just a really good person, and I think she was afraid for everyone else, or she was worried for everyone else. Victim blame? I’m tired of hearing that. To say she should have left, that’s so easy. I get angry when I hear people say that, because you don’t know all the circumstances. No one wants to see anyone being abused, or their children, or a standoff. Then you have to worry about police lives.”

Leichty spoke in the offices of Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern Pennsylvania on Maiden Street in Washington, not far from the blocks where the 1.1-mile “Peace from Domestic Violence” walk is scheduled to take place Saturday.

Although participants can walk at no charge, the event has spawned 25 fundraising teams listed at crowdrise.com/peacefromdvwalk.

Leichty, for example, is calling her team Peace and Hope in Memory of Tierne Ewing. A friend designed a logo of a purple ribbon inside a purple circle. Below is the name “Tierne,” flanked by two angel wings.

Leichty was aware of Domestic Violence Services through her membership in Ladies of the Elks, which has organized donation drives for the agency’s shelters.

“I felt I needed to do something more, which is why I called Courtney,” Leichty said.

Courtney Korpus, volunteer-outreach coordinator for Domestic Violence Services, sponsored a 5K race last year for Domestic Violence Services, but last November, she began planning a walk to attract people of all abilities, children in strollers and pets.

Including children and pets was important to Korpus, because there’s often a correlation.

“There are many reasons why someone would stay,” Korpus said, and a common one is because an abuser is “threatening harm against people or animals that they love.”

In addition to increasing awareness of domestic violence, the agency hopes to raise $15,000, which is the cost of running one of its two emergency shelters for a month. As of Wednesday, it had garnered 54 percent of its goal.

Participants will gather in the parking lot of Church of the Covenant, 267 E. Beau St., at 11 a.m. before the noon walk past the Washington & Jefferson College campus via Lincoln and East Wheeling streets to the courthouse and back to the church lot by way of East Chestnut Street.

The event is a kickoff of anti-domestic violence month, observed in October.