Domestic Violence Silhouette Stolen From Waukesha Women’s Center

WAUKESHA, WI— A purple silhouette representing a victim of domestic violence was stolen sometime Sunday night from outside The Women’s Center, 505 N. East Ave. in Waukesha.

Angela Mancuso, executive director of The Women's Center, told Patch the act was disrespectful.

Mancuso said the missing silhouette represented one of the victims of the October 2012 shooting at the Azana Salon and Spa in Brookfield.

Radcliffe Haughton killed his estranged wife, Zina Haughton, 42, of Brown Deer, and two other women, Cary L. Robuck, 35, of Racine and Maelyn M. Lind, 38, of Oconomowoc, at the salon before taking his own life.

“It is disrespectful to the survivors and victims of the Azana shooting and The Women’s Center and our clients,” Mancuso said.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The display of 12 to 15 purple silhouettes was created in 1992 to represent lives lost to domestic violence.

There has never been an issue in the past with the display being vandalized or thefts of the silhouettes, Mancuso said. Families of victims represented have visited the center in the past.

“They represented a human life,” Mancuso said of the silhouettes.

A banner near the display explains what people are looking at. Each life-sized figure bears the date of a person's death.

A security camera wasn’t able to capture the theft. Mancuso and her staff will put messages on social media demanding the safe return of the purple silhouette, she said.

“It was clearly someone who doesn’t know what we do at The Women’s Center and doesn’t understand what the silhouettes represent,” she said.

The Women's Center encouraged anyone in the community who is affected by domestic or sexual violence to call a 24-hour hotline, 262-542-3828.