Hoffman Estates teen remembered at vigil

Laura Engelhardt's softball jersey hung prominently at a candlelight vigil held Thursday at Conant High School, but instead of her name on the back, it read, "Agnes."

"That was a nickname coined by her seventh-grade teacher, and it just stuck," said her mother, Shelly. "But that was Laura. She was kind of quirky, personable and very strong-willed."

In the end, her strong will couldn't fend off an attack. Her sister's boyfriend is accused of stabbing to death 17-year-old Laura, her father and 85-year old grandmother in April at their Hoffman Estates home.

Laura and domestic violence victims like her were remembered during the fourth in a series of vigils mounted this month by WINGS or Women In Need Growing Stronger, during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

"We want people to be aware, that they can call us, before it becomes deadly," said Rebecca Darr, WINGS executive director.

Already, numbers of calls coming into their agency are up to 300 per month, Darr said, up from 200 one year ago.

Area police departments are seeing an increase as well, Darr said. She gave as an example the city of Rolling Meadows, where police told her they responded this year to 109 domestic battery calls, as well as more than 400 domestic incidents.

"That's one of our smaller communities. If you extrapolate those numbers across the 50 communities in the Northwest suburbs we serve," Darr said, "we estimate that there are between (20,000 and) 25,000 domestic-related incidents per year in this area."

Rita Canning, co-chairman of the board, says that even those numbers are underreported.

"The best statistic I can give you is a national one: every 9 seconds someone else is abused," Canning said. "Every 9 seconds, there is another victim."

The murder of the Engelhardt family members brought those statistics home for the nearly 60 people who attended the vigil. Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod said the entire community had been affected, as he opened the vigil before turning it over to a pair of Englehardt's classmates.

"Most high school students never thought twice about domestic violence, but its impact is far too prevalent to be ignored or neglected," said senior Anna Gotfryd of Roselle.

Sean Engelbreit, a senior from Elk Grove Village, said his grief over losing his friend whom he ate lunch with every day still lingers.

"I still can't bring myself to look at her locker," Engelbreit said.

Conant High School Principal Tim Cannon said it was the students who stepped up and led the school community in coping with the tragedy.

"They showed more courage and determination to make it right than anything I've ever seen," Cannon said.

To demonstrate their commitment, he handed Shelly Engelhardt a check for more than $18,000 raised in Laura's memory by Conant's students, faculty and staff.