hopeafterhomicide.org

I am the little sister of a murder victim. 

Marvin Charles “Charlie” Prater.

October 13, 1967-October 21, 2000. 

 

If you were to see his death certificate, his date of death is listed as October 24, 2000 due to:  Blunt Impacts of the Left Side of the Head, Left Parietal Skull Fracture, and Right Subdural Hematoma with Brain Injury. 

Why the discrepancy of three days?  The last time I seen Charlie was October 21st.  The last time Charlie seen his family was October 21st.  It was on the night of October 21st that Charlie was beaten with an aluminum baseball bat and left to die a slow, agonizing death.

It was on October 24th when his body was recovered face-down from a shallow grave, and that’s the date listed on his death certificate.  October 24, 2000 was the day Charlie Prater became a statistic. 

 

I was twenty-three, nine months pregnant, and scared to death.  I was scared because I didn’t know what to do.  I didn’t know how to be a victim and law enforcement in rural Kentucky didn’t know how to treat me.  So, they tried to ignore me.  I only missed one day in my daily visits to the Sheriff’s office, November 18, 2000 the day I gave birth to my daughter.  Shew, you should’ve seen their faces when I walked into that office on November 19th, half the size I was on the 17th! 

 

We all begin our journey in the same way.  Plunged into a head-spinning world of traumatic grief, criminal investigation, criminal justice, and the long-term consequences of violent loss.  Previous experience with the criminal justice system has been limited to prime-time TV and courtroom novels, leaving victims confused and intimidated.  Victims feel like they are on the outside looking in.  Not only have they lost a loved one to murder, but that loved one has also lost personhood.  The life that was so precious to them is now reduced to newspaper headlines and case file tucked into a prosecutor’s briefcase. 

 

We need to know what comes next.  We need to know what to expect.  We need to have confidence in our justice system.  From my own experience with four defendants in Charlie’s case, years of research, and talking with victims from across the state of Kentucky, I have found that even the most basic of information is not being made available to victims. 

I hope by developing this website (it’s still a work in progress), families affected by homicide will have a basic understanding of what lies ahead of them.  We are in this together, when we support each other, we ease not only our burden but the burden of those who walk the same path.