Loudoun County, VA (July 14, 2021): The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office has partnered with Project Beloved (The Molly Jane Mission) to create a soft interview room for victims of violent crime. This will be the non-profit organization’s first soft interview room in the Washington, DC metropolitan region.
The soft interview room is located in the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) headquarters in Leesburg. The room includes comfortable chairs, wall decorations, rugs, and soft lighting funded by Project Beloved. The room contrasts with traditional law enforcement interview rooms with straight back chairs, a small steel table and bare walls and floors.
Soft interview rooms are part of a Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) response and create a space that is comfortable for victims and witnesses to feel physically and emotionally safe. Detectives with the LCSO trained in interviewing victims of trauma will utilize the room when talking with victims of traumatic crimes.
“This room will provide a sense of comfort to victims and witnesses, offering security and a sensitive environment to speak with our detectives. We want to ensure they feel safe, and they know we are here to help,” said Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman.
Project Beloved was founded in 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas by Tracy Matheson, the mother of Molly Jane. Ms. Matheson founded the organization after she learned that her daughter’s death was ruled a homicide and prior to her death she had been raped. Project Beloved also included two canvases in the soft room by photographer Megan Getrum. Megan was killed in Texas five days after Molly Jane by the same suspect. The suspect is facing capital murder charges.
The organization works with law enforcement and survivors across the country.