Exhibit honors domestic violence victims

April 04--ONEONTA -- Tifanne Wells and Elizabeth Welsh Callahan are remembered in an exhibit at the State University College at Oneonta created to honor victims killed in acts of domestic violence.

Almost 60 college students, community leaders and family members gathered inside SUNY Oneonta's Fine Arts Building for the exhibit's opening reception Monday night. Most were quiet, and some hugged and shed tears.

A tube of "True Red" lipstick. A yoga mat. A soccer ball. A pair of reading glasses. These items, along with dinnerware and other personal belongings, have been placed around a small dining room table to represent Wells, Callahan, and Tiffany Lynn Meeks, an Oneida resident who was killed in August 2015.

Wells and Welsh Callahan, Otsego County women, were killed in 2015 and 2000 respectively.

The memorial exhibit is called "An Empty Place at the Table" and will be on display until Friday to honor the victims, organizers said, and to spread awareness "of the devastating impact of domestic violence on families and our community."

The effort was coordinated by the Violence Intervention Program of Opportunities for Otsego, according to victim resource coordinator Danica Sessions, who spoke before the crowd Monday.

"Read these women's narratives and spread the word about this exhibit," Sessions encouraged the crowd. "Start a conversation."

At a place setting for Welsh Callahan, known to her family as "Lizzy," there was a soccer ball, tiny butterfly figurines and a poem written by her son, Conner Callahan, when he was 10.

The 34-year-old Goodyear Lake woman was killed 16 years ago. Her husband, Casey Callahan, is accused of running her over with a tractor-trailer in a Pennsylvania parking lot, and his trial in Otsego County is set for September.

Several relatives of Welsh Callahan and Wells were at the event Monday.

With a voice that only wavered once or twice, Wells' daughter, Cassandra Smith, spoke about her mom and how much she misses her.

"No one likes to say 'murdered,'" Smith told the crowd, but that's what happened to Wells in March 2015. The 44-year-old, who was well-known in the community, was shot in the back by her boyfriend, George "Larry" Jones, 51, outside of their town of Oneonta home in a murder-suicide. Police later said the incident began with a domestic dispute.

Smith said she "was not able to speak or eat" after her mother's death and had to force herself to get out of bed. Her mother had insisted she was happy with Jones, she said, but Smith struggled to find evidence of that.

Austin and Dalton, Wells' teenage sons, were also at the event, but they stayed near the back of the room. After Wells' death, friends, family and strangers raised more than $14,000 to "help cover their future."

Smith said she misses her mother particularly when she wants to tell her something, when she hears music she knows her mother would love, and during the holidays, which "will never be the same."

Said Smith: "I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it."

The "Empty Place" exhibit is free and open to the public.

Jessica Reynolds can be reached at jreynolds@thedailystar.com or (607) 432-1000 ext. 221. Follow her on Twitter at @DS_JessicaR.

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