ANNETTE SHOULD STILL BE HERE

My husband’s sister, Annette Valdez, should still be here. She should be watching her daughters grow up. She should be celebrating birthdays, cheering them on at their activities, helping them through life’s challenges, and making memories with the three little girls who loved her more than anything. She should be here for the first days of school, graduations, heartbreaks, achievements, weddings, and all of the moments that mothers are supposed to be part of. Instead, those little girls are growing up without their mother. 

Our family’s nightmare began around Thanksgiving 2025. Annette was last seen during the Thanksgiving holiday. Just weeks before, there had already been serious warning signs. A protection order was in place, and there had been an incident involving an attempted break-in at her home with a knife. The danger was real. Yet five days passed before my husband and I were told that Annette was missing. Five days. By the time we learned something was wrong, valuable time had already been lost. The moment we found out, we began searching.

My husband, Adam Larson Sr., and I immediately dropped everything and started looking for her while still caring for our five children at home. We drove through the night. We followed leads. We talked to anyone who might know something. We conducted our own stakeouts. We searched areas where she had been seen. We spoke with people who might have information. We did everything we could think of because we were desperate to find her alive. Every day that passed felt unbearable. Every phone call made our hearts race. Every lead gave us hope, and every dead end brought more fear. We weren’t sleeping. We weren’t living normal lives. We were surviving moment to moment while searching for someone we loved. While we were searching, Annette’s three daughters were missing their mother, and our family was desperately trying to understand what had happened. Instead, we were forced to live through every family’s worst nightmare. 

Annette was murdered in her own home. According to the coroner, Annette died from strangulation and smothering. She was also beaten before her death. She suffered injuries to her head and bruising throughout her body. Annette was a small woman, but she fought for her life. She fought to survive. She fought to get back to her daughters. She fought, and she never got the chance to watch them grow up. After her death, Annette was denied the dignity that every human being deserves. Her body was removed from her home, hidden, transported through our community, and discarded as if her life did not matter. 

 Annette mattered. She mattered to her daughters. She mattered to her family. She mattered to everyone who loved her. No woman should be treated that way. No family should have to learn those details about someone they love. And no child should have to grow up knowing their mother was taken from them in such a cruel and violent way.

Almost a week after she disappeared, Annette was found deceased. The devastation that followed is impossible to put into words. Annette was not a headline to us. She was family. She was a daughter. She was a sister. She was an aunt. She was a friend. Most importantly, she was a mother. She was loved. Today, her daughters are left with questions no child should ever have to ask. Why isn’t my mom here? Why didn’t someone stop this? Why didn’t someone listen? Those questions are what led us here.

Since Annette was murdered, survivors from Colorado and across the country have reached out to share their stories. Hundreds of survivors, family members, advocates, and professionals have contacted us. The details may be different, but the pattern is often the same. The abuse was reported. The fear was documented. The stalking was ignored. The threats were minimized. Protection orders were violated. Children were left in dangerous situations. Survivors begged for help. And far too often, the response came after the damage was already done.

 Many survivors have told me they reported strangulation, stalking, coercive control, threats, harassment, and psychological abuse long before physical violence occurred. Some were told there was not enough evidence. Some were told there was nothing law enforcement could do. Some were forced to continue co-parenting with their abusers. Some spent years fighting through family court trying to protect their children. Others never got the chance. Domestic violence is not always a black eye. Sometimes it is years of isolation. Sometimes it is financial control. Sometimes it is stalking. Sometimes it is threats. Sometimes it is coercive control. Sometimes it is psychological warfare that slowly destroys a person’s sense of safety, freedom, confidence, and identity. And sometimes it ends in murder. That is why we are creating The Annette Act.

The Annette Act is a survivor driven domestic violence reform initiative built from survivor stories, real cases, research, statistics, and the painful lessons learned from families like ours. We believe intervention should happen before a funeral. We believe warning signs should matter. We believe survivors deserve to be heard. We believe children deserve protection.

The Annette Act seeks to strengthen protections for survivors and children through meaningful reform, including stronger protections for children exposed to domestic violence, recognition of coercive control, psychological abuse, financial abuse, and post separation abuse as serious forms of domestic violence, stronger stalking laws and earlier intervention when warning signs appear, better enforcement of protection orders and stronger consequences for repeated violations, increased accountability for repeat domestic violence offenders, improved family court protections when domestic violence is present, specialized domestic violence training for judges, law enforcement officers, child protection workers, educators, prosecutors, and court professionals, better identification of high-risk offenders and lethality indicators, increased access to housing, relocation assistance, transportation, counseling, financial assistance, and long term support for survivors and their children, greater transparency, data collection, and accountability surrounding domestic violence fatalities and system failures, and reforms that prioritize victim and child safety before tragedy occurs.

 Most importantly, The Annette Act is about changing the way we respond to danger. It is about listening when survivors say they are afraid. It is about recognizing warning signs before violence escalates. It is about protecting children before they become victims themselves. It is about creating a system that values prevention just as much as prosecution.

One of the questions I get asked most often is, “What happens after I sign?” Your signature helps demonstrate public support for reform. This is not just a social media campaign. This is an active effort to bring survivor voices, family experiences, research, and real world solutions to lawmakers and decision makers who have the power to create change. I am currently working with Colorado State Representative Jenny Willford and continuing conversations with survivors, advocates, professionals, law enforcement, and community members to identify gaps that still exist and develop meaningful reforms that can better protect survivors and children.

Every survivor story shared, every signature collected, and every conversation started helps build the foundation for change. The more support we can show, the harder it becomes for these issues to be ignored. This movement belongs to every survivor who has ever felt unheard. Every child who deserved protection. Every family forever changed by domestic violence. This isn’t politics for our family. This is personal. This is Annette. This is for her daughters. This is for every survivor who has ever been told there was nothing that could be done. This is for every family carrying a loss that never should have happened.

Please sign this petition. Please share it with your friends and family. Please help us show lawmakers that survivors deserve better and that children deserve safety. Because Annette should still be here. And because the next family should not have to learn these lessons through tragedy.