SUFFOLK
Eleven years ago next month, Army Sgt. Dameyon Flythe left Suffolk in his new BMW convertible and never came back.
He was at a stop sign on a Newport News street when two teenagers asked him for money, said his mother, LaVerne Flythe. He gave them all he had - $15 - and was shot as he tried to drive off.
He was 25.
"For 10 years, my heart's been longing," LaVerne Flythe said Thursday at an event that marked National Crime Victims' Rights Week.
She and dozens of others gathered at the National Guard Armory in Suffolk for the unveiling of the Murder Wall, a traveling memorial of walnut plaques that lists victims of homicide from all over the country.
Police, prosecutors and surviving friends and family remembered those who have been killed in Suffolk. Many wore red and black, the colors for Victims' Rights Week.
Following a service, four white-gloved law enforcement officers silently unveiled the cloth-covered plaques. There were 28. Each holds 120 names.
The memorial was created in 1987 by the executive director of the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children. LaVerne Flythe had Dameyon's name added last year.
She became involved with the group three years ago after reading an article about a woman whose son was slain in their backyard.
"That pain doesn't go away," LaVerne Flythe said. But becoming part of the organization and reaching out to other parents of slain children helped her move forward.
"She saved my life," said Anita Costley, whose 26-year-old son was killed outside of her home in November 1998. An arrest was made in the case just this year.
"If you haven't walked in our shoes, you don't know how we feel," A.J. Parker told the crowd. "We look OK on the outside. On the inside, we're not OK." His son was killed in Suffolk in January 2006. The more he expressed how he was feeling with those who understood, the easier it became.
"We laugh, we cry, we joke," he said. Still, "we'll never get over it. We'll live it every day."
Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5555, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com