RUMFORD – Several life-sized forms of women stood silently in Morency Park as nearly 40 live women and men remembered Nancy Smith, a warm, quiet woman who was the most recent Mainer to be killed by her companion.

And this kind of domestic abuse will continue until the public is as outraged by such abuse as it is by other forms of violence, speakers at the event said.

Speaker after speaker told of the numbers of people – the overwhelming majority being women – who are beaten or killed by the person who is supposed to love them.

In Maine so far this year, Smith became the 10th woman slain by her longtime companion. The Dixfield woman was a well-liked employee of Swift River Health Care in Rumford. She was killed by Melvin Bishop, her companion of 26 years, who then turned the gun on himself on a dirt road in East Dixfield.

“My heart is heavy at the loss of yet another life to domestic violence,” said Paula Paladino, executive director of the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project in Lewiston. “Women and children are killed with no sense of outrage. The most dangerous time is when a woman decides to leave.”

She said such acts of domestic violence are acts of power and control, adding that most such acts are preventable.

“We can’t afford to look the other way,” she said. “Other lives may be saved as a result of her tragedy and when the public refuses to allow abuse.”

Smith, an employee of Swift River Health Care in Rumford, had left Bishop only a few weeks before her death.

Participants were told that friends, co-workers and family should know that abuse that sometimes escalates to murder happens more frequently than many may believe.

From 1996 to 2000, 40 Maine women were killed by their companions. Nationwide, more than 1,000 women are killed in domestic situations each year.

“We are accountable as long as we are members of the community,” said one man.

The red forms, symbolizing Maine women who have been killed by their partners, are part of the Maine Silent Witness Project, a statewide initiative based in Falmouth, and part of a nationwide initiative that aims to raise awareness about such abuse.

Linda Jamison of Carthage said Smith was her secretary and friend.

“She was a private person, but she loved working with us and was very family oriented,” she said.

Another friend, Lisa Picard, said Smith was a bright and happy person.

“I had no idea she suffered as much as she did,” she said.

Lt. Wayne Gallant of the Rumford Police Department said domestic complaints have risen in recent years – not because of the rate of incidents, he believes, but because people are more aware that there is help available.

He said the Police Department takes such incidents, and threats, very seriously.

“We need to hear about threats, we want to know about them. We can do criminal investigations,” he said, adding that women can take out protection-from-abuse orders.

Joe Sirois, a member of the local Unitarian Universalist Church, closed the vigil by emphasizing the need everyone has for each other.

“Let us support each other. We need each other when we mourn, when we are troubled, when we are tempted or facing defeat. All of our lives we are in need, and others are in need of us. Nancy’s death reminds us of our need for each other,” he said.