More than 50 candles burned in silence as UALR students and staff remember Patricia Guardado. Guardado disappeared on her way to class last October and police have yet to find her murderer.
Last October, Patricia Guardado disappeared on her way to class. Fishermen found her body five days later in a Sweet Home pond and police have yet to make an arrest.
"I promise that we will find whoever did that to you and we will bring justice," said Guardado's cousin, Miriam Garcia, at Wednesday night's vigil. "We will find those that hurt you and will make them pay for all of the pain they have caused us."
Like her family, Guardado's professor remembers the day Patty disappeared all too well.
"By the time our class met again on the following tuesday, Patricia's body had been found," said UALR professor Dr. Erin Finzer. "The rest of the semester would be marked by her empty chair and the painful, fearful reality that someone who had sat with us had suffered unbelievable violence."
Guardado's mother doesn't speak much english so she addressed the crowd with help from a friend.
"It is hard to get up every and not knowing anything about the murder of my daughter," translated her friend. "It happened to me today. It could happen to anybody in the future."
