Lisa Spicknall works each day at the Prince George’s County Courthouse in Upper Marlboro as an advocate, answering questions from domestic violence victims who are in court seeking peace or protection orders against their abusers.
It’s a service that wasn’t available in 1998, Spicknall said, when she filed for divorce in a Howard County court and sought protection from her then-husband, Richard Spicknall II.
“When I went to file for my protective order, I was completely overwhelmed by the court process,” Spicknall, 31, said Wednesdaymorning after a news conference. “At that point in time, there was no one.”
In September 1999, Richard Spicknall II shot and killed the couple’s two children, 3-year-old Destiny Spicknall and 2-year-old Richie Spicknall, while they sat in their car seats. The violent deaths of her children first sent Lisa Spicknall in search of support and ultimately led her to become a voice and source of strength for victims of domestic violence.
“There was a choice,” said Lisa Spicknall, who now has two young sons. “I had the option to lay down and die or get up and fight. It keeps them alive.”
Sometimes, Spicknall said, victims just need to see others who have survived similar tragedies and know that there is hope.
“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
