INDEPENDENCE, Mo — Kansas City area homicide victims are remembered every year during a ceremony called "The longest night."
It happens on December 21st, typically the day of the year with the least amount of daylight.
The Gathering Baptist Church and Kansas City Mothers in Charge have the names of 180 homicide victims from Kansas City, Independence, Blue Springs, Raytown and Lee's Summit written on crosses on the outside of the church lawn.
"Our daughter was murdered February 8th. Deondrea Brand," said Mary Lee, Brand's mother.
Ginger Bass was surprised to hear her daughter-in-law, Melissa Brown, would have a cross on the lawn Thursday night.
"She was murdered on December 17th due to a robbery," Bass said.
The church bought the crosses and had them customized for each victim. They allowed the victim's families to take them home. Pastor Wes Wakefield said he wants these families to know their loved ones aren't just a name or a homicide statistic.
It isn't lost on Wakefield how all the crosses represent a violent year where too many families had to attend a funeral.
"This is one of the highest years. It's a record. It will probably be a record-setting year for the KC area," Wakefield said.
The families and friends who showed up tried to hold it together while they remembered someone with whom they thought they had more time.
"How much we love her, how much we miss her," said Mary Lee, mother of a homicide victim. "I think about her everyday, everyday and every hour."
Mothers in Charge and pastors were at the the ceremony to give families words of hope.
The words of comfort and the crosses meant the world to some people.
"I'm going to take it [the cross] where she was murdered at and put it there," Bass said. "I didn't know I could."
Some of the families still wait for justice from the courts or hope for an arrest.
"Tomorrow is not promised," Bass said. "Your life changes in seconds."
