COLORADO SPRINGS – There are differences between their stories, but a similarity unites all of the families attending a National Day of Remembrance event in Colorado Springs Tuesday.
They have all lost a loved one to murder.
Pam Lively’s daughter, Angie Sicola, is the reason she attended the event at Life Church.
“Angie was found murdered in her off-campus apartment during her sophomore year at UCCS,” Lively said.
Sicola’s murder remains a cold case with the Colorado Springs Police Department. Lively told News 5 she’s felt the pain of the crime since it happened.
“We’re survivors. We grieve every day, and we will for the rest of our lives,” she said.
Inside the church, pictures of other victims like her daughter face the pews and the loved ones that still miss them.
But one group, Mothers of Murdered Youth (MOMY), brought all of the families together to give them the support they need.
“It gives you the strength to find a reason to get out of bed every day, because you really have to have that to survive,” Lively said.
Jim Hughes is the nonprofit’s vice president.
He, too, knows the pain of losing a loved one to murder.
“My son was murdered 10 years ago. Spent a year-and-a-half in court. Then, when court was done, all my support went away,” Hughes said.
Families were given the chance to grieve together and share lasting memories and stories in the hopes of helping one another live with the pain of murder.
If they chose to speak, they made their way to the podium, holding the photo of their loved one.
“We get these pictures made, and they get to see their loved one remembered, and they get to hold them and show them,” Hughes said. “It lets them know that they’re not forgotten either.”
They dried their eyes, held each other close and thought back to their happy memories together — hoping, even just for an afternoon, their loved ones could come back home.
“She’s in my heart, and she’s here right now,” Lively said. “So, yes, I do believe that she’s watching over us.”
Lively also said she’s optimistic law enforcement will be able to crack her cold case with the emergence of new technology. She told News 5 last week’s arrest of a Pueblo man in connection to the 1988 murder of Mary Lynn Vialpondo gives her hope that more cold cases will be solved.
