Stansbury Park resident Joyce Fawson never dreamed she’d be a victim of domestic violence. That became a traumatic reality for her in 2001, though, when an argument between a couple left her with vivid memories of seeing and hearing three people shot to death, and sustaining life-altering physical and emotional wounds of her own.

Fawson, her husband Blaine, and the families of several other victims of domestic violence were just a few of the marchers toting lit candles on Main Street Thursday evening as part of an annual vigil put on by local advocates in an effort to spread awareness on the subject.

“I’m an here tonight as a survivor,” Joyce said. “We are the only ones who can stop the circle of events [connected to domestic violence].”

Fawson’s domestic violence story began on Nov. 25, 2001, just before 8 p.m., when she noticed a distraught woman standing outside of Jimbo’s Drive Inn in Grantsville, where Fawson worked. When Fawson confronted the woman, she heard someone yell, “Get the hell out of the way or I will shoot you too.” Then a man approached the woman and shoved her to the ground and shot her with a .38 caliber pistol.

Fawson ran to the phone to call 911, but didn’t think her call went through. As she was hanging up, she was shot in the stomach and the leg.

As she lay motionless, terrified of the gunman’s next move, the phone rang.

“Dead people don’t answer the phone,” she said, adding that she remained in the fetal position. “I didn’t want the gunman to know I was alive.”

The gunman — later identified as Thomas D. Schutz — walked into the restaurant’s kitchen and Fawson heard more shots fired, which ultimately resulted in the death of Jimbo’s owner Jimmie Maddox. Back in the dining room now, Joyce heard Schutz fire one last time and watched him fall to the ground near the body of his wife Marilyn with a bullet wound through the head.

That’s when she began crawling toward the back door, a cordless phone in hand. After dialing 911, Joyce was informed that a police officer was already en route because of the previous hang-up call, but more would be immediately dispatched.

“My thanks goes to all those in that profession who were there that night,” Joyce said.

She was transported by ambulance to Tooele Valley Medical Center and fortunately was released a few days later, as bullets struck no vital organs.

That doesn’t stop the questions from still invading Blaine’s mind every time the subject of domestic violence comes up.

“Nov. 25 was a cold, snowy, miserable night,” he said. “I had just finished a tile project at my son’s house in Grantsville and decided not to go help Joyce close.”

Then he heard the phone ring and noticed an instant change in his son’s facial expression.

“Dad, Mom’s been shot,” Blaine recalled his son saying. “I got choked up. The words are kind of like a bolt of lightning hitting you in the spine.”

When Blaine arrived at the hospital, he was horrified to see the blood stains on Joyce’s sweater and pants.

“Minutes later, I could see the bullet holes,” Blaine said. “I thought ‘whoever did this must be crazy.’ The questions never go away.”

Linda Fitzpatrick, also present at the vigil to commemorate the life and legacy of her sister-in-law Tina Evans, who was murdered in her Stansbury Park home by her ex-boyfriend John Dean Bevan, said she takes comfort in knowing that the county has resources that victims can rely on when going through trying times.

“Anyone being victimized, lean on police, the court, anyone you know to take away the power from these abusers,” she said.

Evans, who was killed in August 2006, didn’t realize she was in a domestic violence situation until it was too late, Fitzpatrick said.

“Tina was trying to end the relationship,” Fitzpatrick said. “It was decided that day that [Bevan] would move out the next day. Now she has two grandchildren who will never feel her loving touch.”

Bevan is currently serving a five-to-life sentence in prison for the murder.

The vigil was capped off with the opportunity to view displays on Evans and Nicole Speirs, a Tooele woman who was murdered by her boyfriend and the father of her young twins, Walter Smith, in 2006. Along with pictures of both victims, the displays featured table settings, depicting the absence of the women at their family’s table each day.

“I think [this event] is very therapeutic and healing for families of victims and for victim’s themselves,” said Lynne Smith, domestic violence advocate for the Tooele City Police Department. “It’s therapeutic for them to share the life of their family members and celebrate that. It allows them to have closure.”

Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com