National Day of Remembrance walk held in Oxnard
September 25 is National Day of Remembrance for homicide victims. On Wednesday, the Oxnard Police department partnered up with the Greater Ventura County chapter Partners of Murdered Children in a remembrance walk.
“I come to the cemetery quite a bit,” said Julia Campos, who is a board member Parents for Murdered Children. “Three or four times a week. I make sure my son has fresh flowers and that he knows he is never forgotten.”
Santa Clara Cemetery is where Julia Campos now visits her son. Daniel Campos was shot and killed back in 2004.
“He is always in our hearts,” said Campos.
Julia is now part of the Ventura County Parents for Murdered Children organization. The group is using this National Day of Remembrance to gather and walk in honor of those lives lost to violence.
“I am a 10-time survivor of homicide victims within my family, and it has helped me tremendously in knowing that there is somebody out there that can not only help me with my loss, but what I have experienced, I can offer some guidance,” said Campos.
Campos isn’t alone. Cynthia Gonzalez’ son, Joshua Van, was killed five years ago in Oxnard. He was only 24 years old.
“After he was murdered I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t really do anything,” said Gonzalez.
That’s when Gonzalez found Parents for Murdered Children. She says the organization has really helped her family cope with their loss.
“It changed a lot of the ways that we thought about how we would resume daily living after losing Joshua,” said Gonzalez. “The support group has been great because we are able to meet and get together with other families that we wish were not going through this at all. We get together and we get to take care of one another.”
The group not only provides emotional support, they also provide judicial guidance during court cases. Most importantly they remember the lives that were brutally taken.
“We haven’t forgotten. That is the scariest thing for me, is that they will be forgotten because people are not going to have an opportunity to meet them and know how amazing they were,” said Gonzalez.
