'We will remember:' Families speak for loved ones silenced by violence

A vigil Wednesday night celebrated the lives of loved ones lost to violence.

Family members at the vigil were left with faces that can now only smile back in pictures and memories of their loved ones.

“I miss her smile,” Lori Hugelmaier said. “I miss her goofiness, I miss the hugs, I miss her.”

Lauren Huglemaier’s family said they especially miss her during the holidays.

“We love Christmas, all of us, and when Lauren first said ‘oh-la-lights’ it was just perfect. We haven’t changed it,” Lori Hugelmaier said.

While the Hugelmaiers have answers in their daughter’s case, the family of Jose Melendez is still seeking justice.

“I hope I’m still making him proud today,” Melendez’s sister, Mara Baker, said. “I just try to stay strong for my family and my friends and my brother’s friends, because it just hurts us every day that Raleigh police have no leads.”

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Wednesday night, his family joined others remembering loved ones whose voices were silenced by violence.

“The last day she was alive, I talked to her at least five times that day, and so there’s a huge void of something happening and needing to call her,” Lauren Hugelmaiers’ sister, Beth Agner, said.

The vigil ended with each family getting an opportunity to say the name of their loved one, followed by the refrain “we will remember.”

The Hugelmaiers said they had been planning a trip to Disney World before their daughter's death and the Disney package arrived the day she was murdered. They took the vacation one month later, saying if was difficult, but they knew it was what she would have wanted.