Blissfield event targets domestic violence

7/20/2013

BLISSFIELD, Mich. — An all-wheel poker run today to honor two sisters who were killed last year and to benefit a domestic violence program will take participants from Blissfield to near Swanton.

Organizers say the event will be open to “anything with wheels.” It is to begin with registration at 9 a.m. at the B-Town rear lot, 108 S. Lane St., Blissfield. Participants will depart between 10 a.m. and noon. The ride will end at the NCO Club of the Ohio Air National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing, 2600 S. Eber Rd., Monclova Township.

Proceeds from the event will be donated to the Catherine Cobb Domestic Violence Program in Adrian in memory of Amy Merrill, Lisa Gritzmaker, and Abigail Gritzmaker. Ms. Merrill, 33, and Mrs. Gritzmaker, 24, were shot and killed July 14 at Ms. Merrill’s Blissfield home by her ex-boyfriend, Thomas Jack Fritz. Mrs. Gritzmaker was seven months pregnant, and the unborn daughter, to have been named Abigail, also died.

Fritz later shot and killed himself in rural West Virginia as a deputy U.S. marshal approached.