Full Name: Mary Sheperd-Sunderland
Spouse: James Sunderland
Age: Assumed to be 25 at time of death.
Occupation: Unknown
Status: Deceased

Short Profile (No Spoilers):
Mary Sunderland is James's wife. She was diagnosed with a rare and fatal disease three years before the events of Silent Hill 2, and her death left James unable to move on with his life. However, one day, he recieves a letter from Mary, and it draws him back to Silent Hill, to their "special place".

Biography (Spoiler-iffic):
Mary was James's wife, and the cause of his "three-year" depression after she died of a rare and fatal disease. She and James were very much in love until the end of her life, when Mary became a "monster", bitterly striking out at everyone she loved, even James.

Presumably three years -after- Mary's death, during which James suffered a dark depression; he recieves a letter from Mary. In it she states that she is waiting for him in Silent Hill, a place that holds many fond memories of the two; and the last place they visited together before Mary was diagnosed. In the town he is given rare hints that she is in the town. A scrambled radio message, a mannequin wearing Mary's clothes (picture available here), a crude message painted on a wall...

Half-believing she is alive, James arrives in Silent Hill, to find something is wrong with the town. During his quest to find Mary, he meets Laura, a young girl who befriended Mary when she was hospitalized. Mary planned to adopt Laura if she got better, and cared a lot about the little girl. Laura knows more about Mary that she's willing to tell James, and she knows something extremely damaging about James himself...

During his travels, James also meets Maria. Maria is a seductive, brassy woman whom looks exactly like Mary except for her clothes and hair. They are exact opposites, and later (if you play the game right) you learn that Maria is just an illusion, a puppet used by the town to ensare James into paying eternal retribution for his sin.

So, what is James's sin? Why does Laura claim that Mary only died three months ago when James has apparently been grieving for three years? Why did he recieve a letter from Mary? And why is he drawn to Silent Hill? Because James murdered Mary.

James couldn't stand Mary's bitterness, her transformation from the sweet woman he loved into a bitter harpy. Mary admittedly did not want to believe she was going to die, and she was deeply angry because it didn't seem fair to her. She couldn't help lashing out at everyone, but it didn't help; and only made James begin to hate, yet love her at the same time. It is understandable why Mary was angry. She was young, she hadn't even had the chance to begin a family, she couldn't do so many things that other people could do. She would never be able to have or watch her own children grow up, she would not grow old with James, and he would eventually fall in love with someone else and forget her.