♪ Narrator> Nearly 1/3 of all women in America report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or a boyfriend at some point in their lives.

♪ [siren wailing] Not all victims of abuse survive to tell their stories.

These three women were killed.

Their stories are told by the loved ones who were left behind.

(female singer) ♪ Remember my name.

♪ ♪ ♪ Rememberrrr... ♪ ♪ Remember my name.

♪ ♪ ♪ Rememberrrr... ♪ ♪ my...name.

♪ ♪ Vickie Fleming Mayer> Rhonda was a very outgoing person.

She was always laughing, making people laugh.

She was full of life.

Loved her kids tremendously.

I looked up to her.

She was my big sister.

Well, me and Rhonda were two years apart, and like typical sisters, you know, we slept in the same bed together as little girls.

And I'd, of course, throw my leg over her, and she'd punch me, "Get your leg off me," you know, just normal kid stuff.

But, you know, as we got older-- young adults-- we became close.

narrator> Rhonda Fleming was a divorced mother of four when she met and married William L. Snipes.

On May 23, 2003, as she left work, Snipes attacked and killed his wife.

Jennifer Thomason> I didn't like him from the day I met him.

She brought him home, and introduced him, and he was riding a motorcycle and had on his leather and stuff, and I didn't like him.

First couple of months, it wasn't "abuse" abuse.

It was him tryin' to keep her away from us and not lettin' her go places, and then it got worse.

When she would tell anybody, or go see anybody and tell 'em, he'd get even madder.

Every time she'd get away, he'd hunt her down, find out where she was at... call her... ride by.

♪ >> I only met him twice.

The first time I met him was a Christmas there, 'cause once they got together, Rhonda didn't come around the family as often.

She was sort of estranged, and I think it had a lot to do with the abuse that was going on.

And then the second time I met him, I was actually removing her from the home because he had severely abused her.

Not much introduction with him.

[siren wailing] Law enforcement had been involved with their relationship almost from the beginning.

It was a cycle that kept repeating itself and getting worse, more violent, each time.

Narrator> Police reports show that Rhonda Fleming endured numerous physical attacks.

She would call for help... flee to safety... but ultimately return.

♪ Vickie> He would do his little plea, "I love you, and we <Cry> need to get together," and plead with her, play on her heartstrings, to get her to come back.

She said she loved him... and she wanted to believe him, which most women in that situation want to believe.

[motorcycle rumbling] She had only been back a short period of time.

He had broken her jaw a few weeks earlier.

We got a phone call from him.

He had been drinking and said they were into it again and we needed to come get her.

So we--my mother and I-- went over there to the home, and she was in bed asleep.

And I went into the bedroom and said, "Rhonda, you need to get your stuff."

"You need to leave here."

And she said, "What are you talking about?"

I said, "Well, Bill's called "and said y'all are fighting again, "and you really need to, you don't need this.

"Life's too short to put up with a man "that's gonna be like that.

"You know, you need to get out."

I told her, "I'm not gonna take no for an answer.

You're gonna come with us."

And my mother reiterated the same thing, you know, "You're coming with us.

"Get what you need.

You're not gonna stay here any longer."

So she left that night.

Didn't go back... that time.

[phone ringing] And the harassment started immediately.

The next day the phone calls were coming in... trying to talk to Rhonda.

She would talk to him... they'd go back and forth.

I'd be leaving to go to work, and I would say, "Rhonda, just hang up the "You don't need to do that.

Just hang up the phone."

♪ But... [crying] Sorry.

But, um... we'd sit up in bed at night, and we would talk, and talk about what she was going through and how much she missed him.

And, um... and I'd remind her, "He broke your jaw, Rhonda.

"It's escalated.

"It's not just a small smack now.

"He is violently abusing you now.

"You don't need to go back to that.

"I don't care how much you love him."

So she went over there one day to get her clothes and all her belongings out of the house.

And, of course, when she went in, he started abusing her right away.

(reenactor) Get away from me!

She ran out of the house.

Leave me alone!

He came out with a gun at that time.

She ran to the neighbor's house.

And he took off with her car and stole it that day.

About a week, two weeks later, he torched the car.

He had three warrants against him, and he was on the run.

But he was still constantly calling.

♪ Evidently, he had found out where she was living at and of course, through that, followed her, that's all we can surmise, for him to have known where she was working at now.

And per the report, he parked his bike a good half-mile away.

And when she came out, he jumped over the guardrail, ambushed her.

And then he proceeded {gunshots) ♪ He ran, got on his bike, and there was a local bar in Simpsonville that they hung out together.

Went and signed himself in and sat and had a drink.

♪ The family, we did flyers with his face plastered on it, "Wanted in questioning for a murder," and also that there were warrants against him.

We pretty much went everywhere that we felt that he would be that someone might spot him and turn him in.

I went to the biking community.

I went to a H.O.G.

meeting, and I handed out 150 flyers.

And a lot of the members knew my sister, and they were shocked... that, you know, she was dead.

And, ultimately, they had an anonymous tip.

The FBI came in on him in the middle of the night.

They rushed the house, and they said by the time they got to the back bedroom, he had took the gun and shot himself in the back of the head.

♪ Rhonda had four children.

At the time of the murder, she had a 21-year-old.

Her youngest was almost eight, a 19-year-old, Jennifer... almost 19.

She had a 13-year-old son...Travis.

She loved her children.

They lit up when she was around.

She had a granddaughter at the time... two of 'em, actually.

♪ Jennifer> She died six days before my daughter's second birthday.

♪ (sniffles and exhales) ♪ I really ain't faced it, it's still so hard.

Narrator> Rhonda Fleming was shot in Pickens County.

Although warrants were enforced in Greenville County, where the couple had lived together, neither Pickens County, where Rhonda was killed, nor Anderson County, where Bill had been hiding out prior to the shooting, enforced those warrants.

Vickie> The whole family was shocked.

You never think someone's gonna do such a violent act.

Even though the violence has been going on and escalating, you never really think that someone's gonna do that.

It was sort of surreal, like, you know, this is not happening to our family.

♪ Victor Jeter> I'm never gonna be all right with it.

I can't be all right because she can't come back.

And the person Davetta was, she never would hurt anything.

I never knew her to get in a fight, argument, or anything, never... start anything.

She was just too nice of a girl.

Too nice, too quiet... she didn't bother anybody.

And that night she got killed, she was in her bed asleep.

She wasn't botherin' anybody.

It hurts.

Narrator> Davetta Roseboro, age 32, a divorced mother of three young children, was shot and killed July 21, 2003.

All three children witnessed her death.

Her ex-boyfriend, Sherman DeWalt, has been charged with her murder.

Victor> Davetta was a nice, sweet, kind girl... quiet, but she was outgoing.

She liked to laugh and giggle a lot.

But most of all, she didn't, you know, didn't talk a lot.

We did go to school together.

She rode my bus when I drove a school bus.

Me and Vetta, we was real, real tight when we was younger.

Heyward Banks> She was one of the sweetest girls you ever want to meet.

Anytime I asked her to do anything for me, or asked to borrow something from her, she was as freehearted and openhearted as she could be.

You know, there never find a time she wouldn't do nothing for you.

That's the type of person she was.

You know, she's gonna be missed.

Definitely be missed.

Victor> You know, I didn't... I didn't know a lot that was going on.

My nephew and niece did, but they never did say anything to me A lot of my friends knew.

After Vetta got murdered, they said, "We wanted to call you, Vic, but Vetta told us don't call you."

And I was like, "you know, I don't need to know it now.

It Heyward> We had not the slightest idea that this was being taking place.

After this incident happened to her then her friends come up, and then they tell us all these things... different incidents, different occasions, that had happened to her.

I mean, we were shocked, We were just natural-born shocked.

But like I said, Davetta was a quiet young lady.

She tended to her own business.

Didn't get into nobody else's business.

She minded her own.

Narrator> Yet the signs were there.

Mary Heyward> She had a... a bruised spot on the side of her face, and Tamara asked her, "What happened to you?

When was you fighting?"

She told Tamara, she had walked into the door, but Tamara said it wasn't no walkin' into no door.

Narrator> On another occasion, there had been an attempt to run Davetta off the road.

Heyward> He had tried to run her off the road and all this stuff How scared she was and how she felt the cars, called... and God was with her to not get killed in a car wreck.

Mary> She said she was doing about 80 or 90.

Heyward> I went to work about 3:30 that morning, when I looked for her and I checked around her house, and there wasn't nobody there.

Victor> He kicked the door in.

He snatched the front screen door off and kicked the front door in, which was double-bolted.

(omnious music) (narrator) As she lay sleeping with her youngest child in bed beside her, Davetta Roseboro was abruptly awakened by her killer.

Victor> So, you know, this guy kicked in three doors.

Dude put the gun on her and made, Leroy get in the corner.

He wasn't letting the kids leave or use the phones.

And then he was tryin' to tell my sister to get up.

And my sister said, you know, "I'm not gettin' up."

(out of the bed) And so he kept telling my sister to get up.

And he said, "Well, I told you I was gonna get you."

So, my nephew said when Vetta sat up, he shot the gun.

(baby crying) I don't know why he killed Vetta.

You know, I...don't think he know why he killed Vetta.

(dog barking and someone knocking on door) Mary> I hear someone banging on the door.

I run to the door.

I jumped up and ran to the door.

All three of them, "Grandmama!

Grandmama!"

I opened the door, I said, "What?

What?"

"Sherman just shot my mama."

I said, "What?"

Victor> My girlfriend was hollering, said, "Vic, your mama said Vetta got shot.

"Sherman shot Vetta."

I was like, "What you talking about?"

Then she kept holloring.

I jumped up and got the phone.

My mama told me to rush out there, so I just got up, got in my car as fast as I could.

When I got outside, I couldn't even see my car in the yard.

And then, when my brother came to the door, he was cryin', I knew something was wrong, 'cause my brother, I never seen him cry...in my life.

He was crying.

I knew something was wrong then.

(Exhales) I don't know.

Things just changed right then.

Narrator> For the Banks family, there has been no resolution.

Sherman DeWalt is still lodged in the Fairfield County jail.

Although charged with murder and first-degree burglary, he has yet to be brought to trial.

We don't want her death to be in vain.

We want her death to be known nationwide or worldwide, that America do have a serious problem with criminal domestic violence.

All men are different.

I just can't see myself puttin' my hand on a woman, because my sister, was murdered...just period.

not just because my sister was murdered, you know, just a woman period, because, you know, you might have a daughter.

You don't want a man abusing your daughter.

You've got a mother.

You don't want a man abusing your mother.

You know, when you look at women, they are that's where we come from... we...a woman beared us.

You know...I can't see any violence towards women, period.

(several people) ♪ The groom cuts the cake.

♪ ♪ The groom ♪ cuts the cake.

♪ ♪ Hi-ho, the derry-o, ♪ the groom cuts the cake.

♪ Narrator> At Barbara Warren's home in Asheville, North Carolina, family gatherings are filled with the sounds of laughter and camaraderie... Barbara Warren> She just did like this.

She was doing like this, when she was a little girl.

Narrator> ...and sometimes sadness, as they fondly recall the daughter who is no longer there.

Marva Grayson died a tragic death after being set aflame by her husband.

Barbara Warren> Said she loved him and she was gonna stay there.

She never said, they were fighting or anything.

But I knew it through Jessica.

She would call me every weekend and tell me this.

But when I asked her, "Oh, we're fine."

She was just a friendly child.

She was real friendly... never found, see nobody that she didn't like.

And, um... she grew up, and then she finished high school.

She was a cheerleader.

She was a sweet girl.

She wasn't a bad person.

She was just sweet.

To me, that was my baby.

Narrator> Marva was grown with two children when she met Dean Grayson.

Barbara> So she met this guy at the VA hospital, and she brought him over here.

I met him.

I really didn't like him, to tell the truth.

I didn't know him, but something about him just didn't... just didn't click with me.

So she got married right here, out in the front yard.

And all her people came to the wedding.

His people didn't come, but all her people came to the wedding.

We had a nice, little wedding out there.

Her friends gave her a reception.

She had it right here at the house.

It was workin' okay here, but they went to South Carolina.

And that's when I think everything started, you know, being...whatever.

Dean Grayson> How do you feel about being Mrs.

Grayson?

Marva> I feel good.

Dean> Then why you ain't smilin', man?

What's up with that?

You frontin' or somethin'?

Marva> I put the cards on the table.

Dean> What are you, being abused or somethin'?

Marva> Yeah.

Dean> I'm abusing you?

Marva> Yes, you do abuse me.

Dean> How do I abuse you?

Marva> By making me happy.

Barbara> Jessica would call me, and she'd say, "Granny?"

I said, "What?"

She said, "Dean is beatin' Mama every Saturday night."

And she said, "Please don't tell Mama.

Please don't tell Mama I'm telling you this."

She said, "And, also, he killed my rabbit."

♪ He killed her rabbit.

♪ And then he killed the cat.

Narrator> For reasons unknown, Marva continued to conceal her marital difficulties from her family.

Eugene Hadden> She wanted her marriage to work.

And she know we would have came there and did something that she would have regretted.

You know, somebody beatin' on your own people.

I know definitely that's why she didn't want to tell me, 'cause she know I would've been there.

Barbara> But I don't know why she didn't want us to come down there and get her and bring her home, out of that situation.

♪ The last time I talked to her on the phone, down there in Columbia, I said, "Marva, um...I heard somethin' about you and Dean.

I want to know, do you want to come home?"

This was on a Friday, before it happened.

I said, "I want to know if you want to com I'm comin' down there and pick you up.

Where's the kids?"

She said, "School."

I said, "I'll come before he get there.

I'll just bring you on back home."

She said, "Oh, no, we gonna make it...we're fine."

♪ Narrator> Gruesome evidence would later reveal what appeared to have been a planned attempt on Marva's life.

(omnious music) Joyce Briscoe> The girl next door had told when they went in the house, he had took kerosene, and he put it all around the bed, all in the toy box, the carpet, and everything, because he was going to burn the... He thought everybody was in on it, and he was gonna burn the whole house down.

And then when she wasn't there, he had went there to get her.

Narrator> At some point, Dean Grayson caught up with his wife.

They began arguing, and they continued arguing as they drove around in the car with her son, Tyrell.

>> Then... they had ran out of gas, and they pushed the car to the gas station.

He had tied Tyrell to the steering wheel, and, um, they was arguin'.

And he took the hose and put the hose-- well, he had bought this little can to put gas in, and he threw that on her, and then he took a lighter and lit her.

(phone ringing) Barbara> Sunday morning... I got a telephone call.

They told me to get down there.

And they said, "Don't stop in Columbia... just go straight on to Augusta."

♪ We got to Augusta, and I walked in the hospital.

The doctor said that, um... ♪ The doctor told me that she wouldn't make it overnight.

♪ But, you know, I believe in prayer, and we began to pray, my friends and my church.

And, um... she did live... one month.

But she never did come to.

They kept her doped up because she was burned so bad.

And the only thing that was out, that wasn't burned on her body, [voice breaking] was...her feet, her toes.

Joyce> I was devastated... I was shocked.

I was like... you know, I thought it was just, like, a little burn or something like that.

I didn't know she had got burnt up, because I mean, she looked like a monster.

I mean, she was covered, from her head to her toe with bandages.

The only way we knew her was her toes.

That's the only way we knew.

[sighing emotionally] You don't know.

♪ I was tryin' to be strong... for her.

It was hard.

And my reaction was-- I didn't know who did it.

♪ At first, I didn't.

Then I found out Dean did it.

Oh, my God.

♪ Narrator> Perhaps the greatest impact has been felt by the two children Marva left behind, Jessica... Barbara> I have seen a change in her.

She's just... she's so rebelliant... against people.

narrator> And Tyrell, the 10-year-old son who witnessed his mother being burnt.

Barbara> Tyrell just told me that he was tied with a coat hanger to the steering wheel.

And when Dean started throwing gas on his mother, he was tryin' to get loose.

When he throwed the match on her, he got loose.

Narrator> Suffering delusions and severe acting-out behavior, Tyrell was eventually removed from the family and placed in a group home in Monroe, North Carolina.

Barbara> His stepbrother... he choked him in his sleep and tried to kill him.

And so we had to send him back to Monroe-- and that's a group home-- where he could be, you know.

So they was going to, so he wanted He said, "Well, I want to come back to my granny's house."

But they said he couldn't come back because they was afraid he might-- something might happen in his head, and he might come downstairs and do somethin' to me.

Beryl> Does he ever talk about his mother?

Barbara> Sometimes...not often.

He'll just say that he miss her, he miss his mama, and said wanted his mama... to come back.

I don't know why she wanted to stay with him, and he beat her.

She said she loved him.

That's the craziest love I ever seen.

♪ Remember my name... ♪ ♪ 'cause I ♪ can't right now ♪ ♪ remember myself.

♪ ♪ I'm tryin'.

♪ ♪ Darkness can grow ♪ ♪ if you let ♪ some things go.

♪ ♪ Drip into ♪ the roots ♪ ♪ of the hurt ♪ parts in you.

♪ ♪ The last time ♪ was the last time, ♪ ♪ and the next time ♪ is the last time.

♪ ♪ Where... ♪ ♪ did the last... ♪ ♪ time go?

♪ ♪ Remember my name.

♪ ♪ Rememberrrr... ♪