A vigil to remember victims of domestic violence was held Thursday evening in front of the Anson County Courthouse.

Roughly two dozen people, many of them members of emergency services or law enforcement, attended the ceremony. It was organized by the Anson County Domestic Violence Coalition. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Those in attendance held candles and listened to speakers. Cardboard silhouettes representing victims and their stories were off to one side. Purple balloons decorated the scene and were released at the conclusion.

In 2009, there have been 57 homicides as a result of domestic violence in North Carolina alone, coalition director Rosetta Morton said.

Morton read remarks prepared by one victim, who was unable to attend.

"I had to learn to trust and love again but I didn't think it was possible," the woman wrote.

Corporal J.R. Horne of the Anson County Sheriff's Office told the story of his arrest of the woman's abuser.

Her employer called her father and reported she had a black eye. Her father then called police and officers responded to her home. While her abuser would not initially allow officers into the home to speak to her, he relented.

"She advised me he had assaulted her," he said. She reported she had been beaten with a frying pan until it bent and broke, as she held her child.

Horne said the Sheriff's Office has responded to nearly as many domestic violence calls this year as all of 2008.

While the number of calls go up every year, hopefully this is just a result of more incidents being reported, Sheriff Tommy Allen said.

Law enforcement is more aware of the problem now and responds appropriately, he said.

He was recently asked to pull a file on a murder in 1981 of a woman and her daughter by a man. He said once he had the file in his hands, he could remember it.

As the sheriff, he said officers at the time treated it as just another homicide. Now that would not be the case.

The only way to stop the problem is by taking on one abuser at a time, Morton said.