WESTFORD — Jody Marchand stood before the Abbot School gymnasium and pointed to her left temple, then her right shoulder.

She showed the crowd of more than 100 the two places where she was shot by her husband more than three years ago. Marchand’s husband Brian murdered their 17-year-old daughter Olivia in February 2010 before shooting Jody Marchand and then turning the gun on himself. Marchand said she still lives with a bullet in her shoulder.

At a domestic-violence presentation Thursday night, the Westford resident recounted the events that led up to her brutal attack. She said she came home from work and her husband approached her, furious, and started to choke her.

“I automatically dialed 911,” she said. “And I hung up right away.”

Marchand said she will always question “what she did” then. She said she planned to bake cookies with her daughter that night but told her they had to leave immediately. Marchand’s husband followed the two upstairs into the bedroom, where he pulled his gun on Olivia, just as she was getting off the phone with police.

Marchand said Thursday she should have known to end the emotionally abusive relationship sooner.

“I will never be over the guilt I feel that maybe at some point over the years I could have saved my daughter,” she said. ” …You’ll think, ‘Do you want to take your children away from your husband? Do you want to put yourself in a position where you have no money?’ I say, ‘Yes. Do it.’ Because you know what? I didn’t. And here I am today.”

Marchand’s story was just one of a few experiences retold throughout the evening, in a forum co-sponsored by her nonprofit group The Live for Liv Foundation and the town’s Coalition for Non-Violence. For more than two hours, local residents, officials and students listened to the stories of other surviving domestic-violence victims, in honor of the awareness month.

Marchand was joined by Malcolm Astley, the father of Lauren Astley, an 18-year-old Wayland girl who was beaten and strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend following their breakup. Liam Lowney, an advocate from the state Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance, shared his perspective as the brother of a woman shot to death at her place of work in 1994 at the Brookline Planned Parenthood clinic.

“When (people like Jody) speak, that’s when things change,” Lowney said. “Through those stories, we learn about the cost of violence, but it’s also how we learn and understand our individual responsibility to be active participants in a solution to it.”

Westford Police Chief Tom McEnaney said domestic violence is still prevalent in town today — the department has responded to more than 170 domestic-related calls so far this year and there are 67 active restraining orders.

Before dozens of people held a “Take Back the Night” march, walking through the center of town with lit candles down Main Street, Astley played an audio file of his daughter singing a song by The Corrs with her friends. He said his daughter is just one of 20 to 30 women in killed in Massachusetts at the hands of an intimate partner each year. He urged the crowd to help those who need to, to come out of unhealthy relationships and respect themselves.

“You are precious,” he said, bursting into tears.

Marchand was greeted and hugged by dozens of friends before and after the event. She said she always thought she’d move away from Westford after the episode, but she realized this is the community that has always supported her.

Marchand’s sister, Jill Toney, also of Westford, stood next to a portrait of Olivia. Toney said she hopes her neighbors never forget her niece or her spirit.

“Olivia just had a full life ahead of her,” she said. “Every dream was just stopped. It’s so selfish to lose so much control over your emotions. … Why couldn’t he let her live?”

For more information, visit the Westford Coalition for Non-Violence website at wwww.wncv.org or the Live for Liv Foundation site at www.liveforliv.com.

Follow Samantha Allen on Twitter and Tout @SAllen_89.