The Victims Rights Foundation is based in Gaithersburg and is planning its second community walk in January to help find a man suspected of raping two senior citizens. Wims founded the nonprofit in 1996 after three killings in Beltsville shocked the suburbs. His organization has brought comfort to thousands of area family members and helped raise money for them. What compelled you to help in 1996?
These three young ladies had been murdered and their bodies were thrown out of a vehicle in Beltsville; it was a horrible story. The way I put it is the Lord spoke to me and I knew had to help these families. To this day I have not been a victim of crime or anyone in my immediate family. … In the [Beltsville] case I went and [got] the name and address of the families. The rest is what we do today: We give comfort and support and put up a reward to try and help catch the person and assist with the burial [costs].
What’s the upcoming walk?
It’s in January, [we haven’t set a date yet], and we are carrying around a police composite [sketch] of a person who has raped two senior citizens, one of them twice. He still has not been caught. My youth ambassadors — kids in middle and high school — do most of walking. The first one we did [for this case], we went to a couple hundred houses.
Does dealing with so much loss get difficult?
I know that in most of these cases if we didn’t help them, no one would. … We want to honor our victims. Everyone remembers Jesse James and Al Capone. But who remembers James Buchanan, the first [D.C.] sniper victim? My goal and the goal of VRF is to keep the names of the victims in the forefront.
— Liz Farmer
