AIKEN - Some of Charlie Carpenter's hopes and dreams for his family's future died the day his daughter, 17-year-old Jessica, was found slain in her Aiken home.
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The rising senior at Aiken High School was looking forward to college, a possible career as a pediatrician and, one day, starting a big family of her own.
"Our lives have changed," Mr. Carpenter said more than three years after that day. "Our whole world was turned upside down. As a parent, you always expect your children to outlive you. None of us ever expected they wouldn't because someone has decided their life has no value."
Mr. Carpenter and Jessica's mother, Judy Carpenter, are among the thousands of members of the national organization Parents of Murdered Children who will use today to honor the memory of children lost to homicide.
The Cincinnati-based group, which offers support, counseling and contacts, claims a membership of more than 100,000. Its central function is connecting survivors of homicide with others who share in their grief.
"While a loved one dies once, the families die a million times over," said Nancy Ruhe, the executive director of Parents of Murdered Children. The organization started its annual Day of Remembrance five years ago because, Ms. Ruhe said, "We have war memorials and Holocaust museums, but we had nothing to remember those who died by violence."
According to the FBI, of the 13,752 murders in the United States in 2001 (excluding the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania), 1,042 victims were under the age of 18.
Jessica will always be 17. To her mother, the friends of Jessica also seem stuck at that age.
"I look at her friends now, and I still see them as being 17, but they're 20 now and getting on with their lives," Mrs. Carpenter said. "She would have been starting her junior year in college this year."
The Carpenter family has sought out other parents of slain children and attended grief sessions sponsored by the group's Columbia chapter.
"They have an understanding of what you've been through and can, unfortunately, sympathize with what you've been through," Mr. Carpenter said. "There's a bond there - we can share that pain."
Mr. Carpenter, who has been separated from Jessica's mother since 1998, acutely feels the pain of his loss.
"Every day," he said. "It's never off your mind or far away. Memories are great to have, but they're also a downer, too."
Mrs. Carpenter lays fresh flowers and balloons on her daughter's grave on her birthday. On Jessica's 18th birthday, her mother had some of her daughter's friends over for cake.
"We like to keep her living, to honor her memory," she said.
Said Jessica's father: "We try to carry on the legacy that Jessica left by just being good to people."
CRIME AGAINST CHILDREN
Recent child homicides in Aiken County:
APRIL 17, 1999: Six-year-old Keenan O'Mailia is abducted, killed and sexually assaulted while riding his bicycle near Riverview Park apartments in North Augusta. William "Junior" Downs later confesses and pleads guilty to the murder and is sentenced to death.
AUG. 4, 2000: The mutilated body of 17-year-old Jessica Carpenter is discovered by family members in their Crosland Park home. The case goes without a suspect for nearly three years, until what police say is a DNA match leads them to arrest former Airborne Express deliveryman Robert Atkins. Mr. Atkins is awaiting trial on murder, kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct charges and faces the death penalty.
FEB. 7, 2002: Brandon DuBose, a 12-year-old sixth-grader, is killed along with his mother by his father in what was ruled by authorities as a murder-suicide. Police said Bobby DuBose, a 40-year-old unemployed man on disability, shot and killed his wife, Frances, and Brandon before turning the gun on himself.
Recent child homicides in Richmond County:
APRIL 22, 2002: The body of 16-year-old Stephanie Nicole Burnett is found by her brother in the lot near their home on Peach Orchard Road. Police arrest ex-boyfriend Matthew J. Wiedeman, 16, and friend Raymond A. Soto, 17. They said the victim was beaten with a steel dumbbell and stabbed repeatedly. Stephanie reportedly thought she was pregnant. Mr. Wiedeman pleaded guilty and received a life sentence in December; Mr. Soto was convicted and sentenced to life in April 2003.
MAY 12, 2003: Renaldo Newton, 16, is shot to death a minute before midnight in front of his home on Old Savannah Road. Police said he was in a scuffle with two groups of men earlier that night. The victim was found with a gun in his pocket and was a suspect in a May 4 shooting. No arrest has been made, and a $2,000 reward is being offered in the case.
SEPT. 21, 2003: Larry L. Drayton, 15, is shot to death outside his sister's apartment at Providence Place Apartments on Bahama Drive. A deputy was responding to a 911 hang-up call when the victim approached and said he had been shot. The teen was taken to Medical College of Georgia Hospital, where he was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds to the upper torso. A $2,000 reward has been offered for information.
GRIEF SUPPORT
Parents of Murdered Children:
South Carolina chapter: (803) 776-0880
National number: (866) 617-7662
On the Web: www.pomc.com
Reach Stephen Gurr at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110.
