Project Help honors victims and survivors of violent crimes

Tonight, the Southwest Florida community celebrated strides being made for victims’ rights but also reflected on what still needs to be done.

After surviving violent crimes with strength and resilience.

We spoke with two women, neither of whom has had justice. 

But what they do have is strength and resilience.

One woman is a survivor of sexual violence and the other is a mother who lost her daughter Rubi to a brutal murder in 2018.

Antonieta Palmer Fernandez says she can feel her daughter’s presence. Through a translator, she said, “I felt like I was always constantly being there for her and watching over her. Rubi was my princess, my doll, my baby girl.”

The mother and daughter moved from Venezuela to the United States seeking a better life and more opportunity, but said “My dream became a nightmare that day, I lost my daughter.”

It was September 13, 2018. 

Rubi got her driver’s license that day, hours later she was murdered.

Fernandez said her daughter was planning to go to Ave Maria in hopes to become a doctor one day, adding that she graduated high school with honors.

It’s been almost four years.

While the tragedy upended Fernandez’s life, she found hope and support through Project Help. 

The advocacy group set up at Baker Park in Naples on Wednesday to celebrate survivors.

Heather St. John said she’s a victim and survivor of sexual assault, recalling how she told the man no but he didn’t stop. 

”I felt like my light had been taken from me and that it was completely stolen. They held my hand through that process of not wanting to live anymore.”

St. John is sharing her story because she said Project Help taught her to speak her truth.

It helped her gain her flame back, 
move forward, and heal in the process.

“Having people believe you believe you when it’s something that you are very confused about yourself is really what saved me,” St. John explained.

Charges were never filed in St. John’s attack, and the man accused of killing Rubi is still awaiting trial. Her mom believes justice will come one day.

RESOURCE: Project Help Naples