Families of homicide victims honored at KC vigil: ‘Not a journey you want to be on’
Caution tape lined the grass outside Speaks Suburban Chapel in Independence Sunday evening as cicadas buzzed in the Kansas City heat. Within its borders lay 695 white placards, each marked with the face of an unsolved homicide victim in the Kansas City metro.
Corey’s Network, a Kansas City-based nonprofit aimed at providing support, advocacy and services to those affected by homicide, according to the organization’s website, held its 13th annual vigil for unsolved homicide victims Sunday.
For the first time since the organization began the vigil, the number of unsolved homicides in the Kansas City metro decreased, director of public relations and co-founder of Corey’s Network, Michelle Norris, said.
“That doesn’t mean that all of them are done from last year,” Norris said. “What it means is that last year, we had 741 unsolved homicides, and this year we have 695. It’s huge.”
Norris and her husband, Robert Norris, founded Corey’s Network in 2014 after her son was killed while walking home from an Independence convenience store in 2013, Norris said.
Corey Laykovich, 22, was stabbed blocks away from his Independence home in 2013, Norris said. He made it back to the home before collapsing in his mother’s arms and dying.
It took three and a half years to solve Laykovich’s death, Norris said. Norris, a social worker, was surprised to discover at the time that area police did not assign victim advocates to those affected by homicides, according to the Corey’s Network website.
“Three and a half years is a long time to wait,” Norris said. “But I will tell you that there’s one gentleman in that pile that his family has been waiting since 1970, and that’s a ridiculous amount of time.”
The vigil allowed community members, local officials and grassroots organizations an opportunity to connect with each other, and share loved ones’ stories.
Rhonda Herring, mother of 21-year-old Brandon Herring, told the crowd she keeps them in her prayers.
“Because I know how it feels to wake up to any empty room that someone stayed there with you in the same house,” Herring said.
Brandon Herring’s body was found decomposing in a creek bed near East 67th Terrace and Lewis Avenue in January 2017, two weeks before his own son was born, Herring said.
“This is not a journey you want to be on,” Herring said.
Dana Godfrey, mother of 20-year-old Christian Olivarez, told attendees that since her son’s death, her daughter has never been the same.
“In a way, that day I lost two children,” Godfrey said. “Cause my daughter’s never been the same since she lost her best friend.”
Olivarez was found unresponsive in the front yard of a Lee’s Summit residence in December 2018. He was declared dead at the scene.
At the time, Christian’s sister, Kirsten Olivarez, told The Star she often found herself wondering if her brother knew he was loved.
His case has since been closed, despite never being solved, Godfrey said. But Godfrey and her daughter continue to fight to reopen his case file.
“Make sure when you make a decision in life, you understand the consequences,” Godfrey said. “Cause I don’t think sometimes these young kids out on the streets killing people fully understand the consequences of their actions.”
Corey’s Network currently lists 695 Kansas City metro homicides as unsolved, Norris said, although that statistic does not represent every unsolved homicide in the area, according to the Corey’s Network website.
Anyone with information regarding an unsolved homicide can contact KC Crime Stoppers at 816-474-TIPS (8477). All tips remain anonymous.
