ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Nearly a year after a woman was shot and killed by a teen while looking for her stolen car, a memorial to commemorate her passing is now gone. Now the victim’s family is asking for your help.
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Last July, Sydney Wilson, had tracked her car to a Smith’s on the west side, when police say she was killed by a 13-year-old teen. We spoke to the victim’s family who calls this incident cruel and unfair.
“Disrespectful…and it just, you know it hurts,” says Donald Wilson, the victim’s father.
The family of Sydney Wilson, says they can’t believe someone would do this to a memorial, just days away from the anniversary of her death. Wilson was killed on July 31, 2023, and her family placed a memorial in her honor at the Smith’s location. However, last Saturday her sister, Crystal Miller, got a heartbreaking phone call saying that the memorial had been stolen.
“I felt like she was taken from us all over again. Like they just ripped her from us all over again,” says Crystal Miller, Wilson’s oldest sister. “This is where we come to see her where we come to talk to her and that was her for us.”
The memorial was at this Smith’s on Coors and Central, where Wilson was shot and killed last year. Wilson had reported her white Hyundai missing from her apartment complex near Osuna and San Mateo last July. Lapel video and 911 calls detail when Wilson called police after tracking and finding her car near the Coors and Central area.
Wilson even met up with an APD officer in a parking lot after following her car. Later that day Wilson tracked her car to the Smith’s parking lot. Police say a group of teens got out, including 13-year-old Marcos Barela, pulled out a gun, opened fire, and killed Wilson. This week, the family found tire tracks and drag marks around the memorial, suggesting the memorial could have been dragged away.
“We just want the cross back, that’s all we want. That way we can put it back and have a place to remember her by,” says Miller.
Wilson’s family asks the public that if they have any information to please contact police. Just two days away from the anniversary of her death, they say they will always remember her kind spirit.
“We love her, we miss her, we wish she was here to celebrate all the good times we’re having. Her great niece that she never got to meet…Just how much we love her and miss her and wish she was still here with us,” says Miller.
The family says they will be replacing the memorial cross at the vandalized site this week. They will be hosting a vigil for Wilson’s 25ht birthday on august 9th. Marcos Barela was arrested and held for the crime. He is being tried as a juvenile.
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