'Mary, a battered woman, suffered'

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) - October is Domestic Abuse Awareness Month, and the family of Mary Lands -- missing and declared dead -- joined a national project to highlight the victims of domestic abuse.

The project, Silent Witness Initiative , highlights the silhouettes of anonymous victims and includes an inscription with words from the family of those who were abused.

Lands, who went missing in 2004, was declared legally dead earlier this year.

On the website, her family wrote:

"Mary Denise Marshall-Lands was taken from us on March 12, 2004. She was a silent victim and witness to a pattern of domestic violence at the hands of her fiance. We never knew that our Mary, a battered woman, suffered in silence.

"Our hope is that her legacy will inspire others on the national tragedy of domestic violence. If one victim can be saved from injury or death, our daughter Mary will not have died in vain. We will never give up our efforts to bring Mary home, and to ask for justice in our daughter's case.

"(Signed) Clifford & Anita Marshall"

Lands' boyfriend at the time of her disappearance was Christopher Pratt. He was never arrested in connection with the Lands case. He is now serving prison time for beating up another girlfriend.