E. Virginia Mahoney, a longtime advocate for victims of violent crime who suffered her own terrible loss when her stepdaughter was fatally shot in 1997, died Tuesday of colon cancer at her Baltimore County home. She was 57 and lived in Phoenix.
Mrs. Mahoney, known as Ginny, began what became her life's work in 1977, after she accepted a position as a paralegal and victims' services coordinator, the first such position in the state, in the Baltimore County state's attorney's office.
"I was looking for a person who had the ability to relate to other people and could bring solace to those during such troubled times," said Sandra A. O'Connor, Baltimore County state's attorney and a lifelong friend who grew up with Mrs. Mahoney in Catonsville.
"She was like a magnet. She had the ability in working with people that made them feel as if they were the only ones she had to worry about," Ms. O'Connor said.
Within three years, Mrs. Mahoney was named director of the office, which worked with victims of domestic violence, drunken-driving accidents, assaults and homicides.
A founder of the Maryland Victim's Assistance Network, a statewide organization for crime victims, she joined the U. S. attorney's office in 1985, where she established the nation's first federal victim assistance program.
"She was at the apex of the movement, and she was the person I always turned to," said Lynne A. Battaglia, U. S. attorney for Baltimore.
In 1990, she retired from her position as victim's services coordinator for the U. S. Department of Justice and later established Mahoney Consulting Services, which dealt with victims and witnesses. She retired in 1997.
In 1988, Mrs. Mahoney met Sally Ransom Knecht, whose husband, the Rev. Lewis F. Ransom, former pastor of Towson United Methodist Church, was slain on a downtown street a year earlier.
Mrs. Knecht, who remarried and now lives in Timonium, recalled Mrs. Mahoney accompanying her to the trial and retrial of her husband's accused killer.
"She came with me the first day of the trial, and she helped guide me through the process. She became an advocate for me, and then we became fast friends," said Mrs. Knecht, who became involved in victims' assistance work and founded Survivors of Homicide and Drunk Driving in 1989.
"We felt her gentle touch and she gave us the courage to face the days ahead," she said yesterday.
"She knew that survivors were never quite able to accept what happened to their loved ones and that they were powerless over that. However, once they acknowledged it, they were able to build a life out of the ashes," she said.
In 1997, Mrs. Mahoney became a victim when her stepdaughter, Mary Caitrin Mahoney, an assistant manager of a Starbucks coffee shop in Washington, was killed with two employees.
"At Caity's funeral, when asked if she wondered, `Why this happened to you,' she replied, `And the answer is simply no. Why not me? None of us is more special or different than anyone else. It's tragic that it has to be anyone.' Her inner strength brought all of us through it," said her daughter, Melissa Gray, an attorney who lives in Lutherville.
Of her mother's work helping crime victims, Ms. Gray said, "She just had a sense of inner peace. Everything she did, she did it knowing you could get through it. That even in the face of sadness and tragedy, she had a sense of balance in the world where she knew people could be taken to a better place based on her faith."
She wrote the national training manual for the Department of Justice's victims' coordinator, and a manual on victims' rights counseling for the Anne Arundel County state's attorney's office. She had been a member of the Governor's Board of Victims' Services in Annapolis and several national boards of victims' rights groups.
In 1998, she was presented with the Governor's Victim Assistance award.
Born E. Virginia Bestpitch in Catonsville, she was a 1959 graduate of Catonsville High School.
She was a member of the Bible Study Fellowship. She also enjoyed reading mysteries and crime stories.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. today at Catonsville Presbyterian Church, 1400 Frederick Road, Catonsville.
She is survived by her husband of 17 years, Patrick Mahoney; two other daughters, Stacy Wenzl of Lutherville and Toni Duncan of Phoenix, Baltimore County; a stepson, Patrick Sean Mahoney of Towson; a stepdaughter, Molly Mahoney of Fells Point; and two grandchildren.
