Peaceful gathering for cold case victims
Families of murder victims whose cases have gone cold still want answers and stood outside Salinas City hall pushing to find them.
The Tuesday evening gathering was peaceful, even getting the support of the police chief.
The families stood outside Salinas City Hall for close to four hours, at one point, going inside to address the council.
Their goal is to make sure their loved ones are remembered and that their killers could still be out there.
Dozens of mothers, shared pictures and memories of children they’ve lost.
“It’s a struggle everyday and it’s nice to have these mothers as a support group,” said Misty Arias who lost her son in 2011.
Support from people who’ve felt that same pain and many still without justice for their loved ones.
The mothers came to speak before the Salinas City Council asking for more resources to help get their cases solved.
“During that time it escalated on homicides so then they said there wasn’t enough resources and there wasn’t anybody who was going to be able to keep on his case,” said Judith Lopez whose son Chris was killed in 2011.
The mothers, lead by Debbie Aguilar with “A Time for Grieving & Healing” have also started a website to bring awareness and hopefully answers.
“This is to generate leads,” said Aguilar, “When they go on this website they’re going to see say ‘Oh look at that, oh you remember that?'”
Debbie says the website is their way of working with law enforcement.
“They run into walls that there’s no leads, they go dry,” Aguilar said.
Debbie’s group already works with law enforcement and Chief Adele Frese, says she supports what they’re doing.
“If I was one of these mothers or family members I would be doing the same thing,” Frese said.
She also says the department is always open to tips about any cold case.
“There are people in the community with information about at least one or more of these cases that have been unresolved and we want to hear from them,” Frese said.
The website is called coldcasecampaign.com. It had a soft launch Tuesday and should be fully up and running by November 16th.
