Mom Uses Daughter’s Death To Raise Domestic Violence Awareness

Connie Nelson will never forget the morning of Feb. 15, 1996.

?Sometimes it feels like it was yesterday,? said Nelson.

Nelson?s daughter, Shannon Larson (Nelson), was murdered by her husband James Larson, a former Teller County Sheriff?s deputy, before he took his own life.

The murder-suicide happened at Nelson?s home in Teller County. Shannon was staying with her mom after getting a restraining order against Larson, said Nelson.

Larson was accused of molesting Shannon?s 6-year-old sister. No charges were ever filed.

Nelson describes the morning Larson broke into her home.

?It took two times (pushing) for him to drop the sliding glass door into the house. Shannon came running out and told him ?James, please don?t do this, please don?t do this. I don?t want to die?,? said Nelson.

Larson pulled out a gun and forced Nelson, Shannon?s little sister, and Shannon into a back bedroom. He then told Nelson and her youngest daughter to go into the bathroom and shut the door, said Nelson.

?Then I heard a shot and I heard another shot and I heard him hit the ground,? she said.

When Nelson opened the bathroom door, Larson was on the floor and Shannon was on the bed. Both had been shot and were dead.

Nelson said there were warning signs before the incident. Shannon had been abused by Larson on multiple occasions.

?It was horrible. He would handcuff her and I saw her with bruises from her ankles up to here (chest),? she said.

Nelson said her daughter never got the help she needed.

?Shannon though she could get out of the situation by coming home and home wasn?t the place to be,? she said.

Nelson wants other women and men who are in violent domestic relationships to know that there is help out there and to take advantage of it.

?The help will save your life. Women need to protect themselves. If they?re ever threatened, take it seriously,? Nelson said.

According to TESSA of Colorado Springs, one in six households are affected by domestic violence.

It?s been 16 years since Shannon?s death and the Nelson family is still picking up the pieces. Nelson and her two children moved away after the murder-suicide, but came back to the same house in 2001 for financial reasons.

She and her youngest daughter, now 22, have been in therapy and suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

?I?m not the same person. I?m late, I get nothing done. I was never that way,? said Nelson.

She has tried to remodel the house, but said the haunting memories still linger.

?None of us what to do anything because we don?t want to be here,? she said.

Nelson is hoping to sell her 5 -acre lot in Teller County and move away.

If you or someone you know is in a domestic violent relationship, visit www.tessacs.org.