KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A family's promise to never forget some of the youngest victims of crime has now become their Memorial Day ritual.
The holiday is always tough for the Bernards.
"I think that's the best way you can describe it: it's bittersweet," Marla Bernard said.
Since 2001, it's been a tradition for Marla Bernard and her husband, David, to place flowers on the grave sites of two little girls.
"They were both brutally murdered and then discarded like they were trash,” said David Bernard, a retired sergeant with the Kansas City Police Department. “We try to keep their memory alive.”
Bernard served on the Kansas City police force for nearly 29 years, including 21 years as a sergeant in the homicide unit.
"You know the most difficult ones were the child homicides, because we kind of took that personally, especially if you had children,” Bernard said. “It really got to you, investigating those kinds of cases.”
Two cases in particular stuck with him and his family: Angel Hart, a 5-year-old who was murdered in 1993, and 3-year-old Erica Green, better known as Precious Doe, who was murdered in 2001.
"These were the only two that truly didn't have any other family," Marla Bernard said.
Angel’s body was missing for years, and Erica went unidentified for several years. The two became part of the Bernard family from the day the investigations into their deaths began.
"I think it's really nice that our family comes to visit them every Memorial Day," said Isabella Saluzzi, the Bernards’ granddaughter.
Visiting the graves became a tradition the Bernards hope to pass on to their grandchildren. They want to keep the memories of the two young victims alive.
"Someday when we're gone, you can come out here, put flowers on her grave, too," David Bernard told his grandchildren on Memorial Day.
"Every life is precious, and we need to always remember them," Marla Bernard said.
