State’s Attorney Birkett Establishes DuPage Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children

DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett is pleased to announce that DuPage County now has an official Chapter of the Parents of Murdered Children (POMC®) Organization.  In connection with the Silver Anniversary of National Crime Victim’s Rights Week, April 10-16, DuPage County will host its first POMC® meeting on Thursday, April 14th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the multi-purpose room of the Judicial Center Annex, located at 505 N. County Farm Road in Wheaton.  Letters of invitation were mailed out to adult family members of homicide victims dating as far back as 1980, however all family members and friends of loved ones who have been taken violently by murder or reckless homicide are invited to attend.  It is not necessary for the crime to have occurred in DuPage County in order to participate.  The DuPage POMC® Chapter is regularly scheduled to meet every month on the second Thursday at the same time and at the same location.  Interested members should contact Terrie Jacoby at 630/407-8008. 

Several months ago State’s Attorney Birkett contacted the organization’s national office in Ohio to request information about establishing a local chapter of POMC® to serve the families and friends of victims living in and around DuPage County.  Although Illinois has four POMC® chapters (Central Illinois Chapter, St. Louis Area Wide Chapter, Southern Illinois Chapter and Chicago Area Chapter), there continued to be a substantially unmet need for an organization to serve these victims here in DuPage County.  Although DuPage has had on average less than 10 murders a year for well over a decade, the number of victims affected by each individual murder is immeasurable.  Nationally, nearly 45,000 men, women and children a year are victims of reckless or intentional homicide.  If estimated that each victim is survived by a minimum of three loved ones who will suffer from deep and bitter grief, the number of persons needing special victim services escalates to 130,000 a year.   Unfortunately, the type of grief that these survivors experience is like no other, therefore they require a very unique emotional support system that POMC® is able to provide. 

It is State’s Attorney Birkett’s hope that the DuPage POMC® chapter will provide the necessary ongoing, emotional support to parents and other survivors of reckless and intentional homicides in order to assist them in rebuilding their lives.  According to Birkett, in essence these victims need to create a “new life,” one which does not include their loved one.  It is his hope that POMC® will not only help survivors to deal with their acute grief, but also with the criminal justice system itself.   

“Parents, families and friends of murder victims share a bond that the rest of society can never fully comprehend,” noted State’s Attorney Birkett.  “They have experienced first-hand the tragic results of violence and the immeasurable loss and grief that follows. Nothing in life can prepare them for such a horrific event, especially when it is at the hands of a spouse or family member.  They experience a range of feelings including grief, loss, helplessness, rage, injustice, and utter sadness, and those feelings don’t go away.  This sense of tragic loss in some way will remain with them for the rest of their lives.  It is our hope that the DuPage POMC® chapter will provide an outlet for these victims to work through these emotions as well as resources to assist them in moving forward with their lives.”