Local Parents of Murdered Children holds first meeting

STANARDSVILLE — The first meeting of the newly formed Central Virginia Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children was Friday at the Depot in downtown Culpeper.

The chapter was founded by Cindy Testerman and her mother-in-law, Pat Testerman, both of whom lost loved ones to violence.

Cindy Testerman credited the national victims support and advocacy group, for helping her through the New Year’s Day 2005 murder of her brother, George Robert “Bobby” Ellis, 38.

After the trial later that year, his wife, Peggy Ellis, was sentenced to 17 years for second-degree murder and 3 years on possession of a firearms charge.

Pat Testerman’s daughter was murdered in 1971.

“Back then, there weren’t any support groups. Before I went to the POMC meetings, the only support I had was my husband.”

Pat says that sometimes she can still feel the horror she felt when her daughter was first murdered.

“There’s no way anyone can begin to describe what you can go through,” she says. “It’s something you never expect to happen to you. There’s no way to prepare for it.”

According to national crime statistics, more than 16,000 people are murdered each year in the United States. But this doesn’t count “all of the people that one murder affects,” says Cindy. “It’s overwhelming.”

Though based in Culpeper, the new local POMC chapter is open to residents of Madison, Orange, Greene and beyond, anyone who is “affected by a homicide, even co-workers or neighbors,” Cindy said.