As the traffic passed loudly, Linda Williams stood at the scene of her daughter’s murder wiping tears away Tuesday.
“I just wanna cry. I miss them so much,” said Williams.
It was Christmas Eve 2019 when Nellie Williams and her husband Fran Shurie were murdered in downtown Duncan’s Charles Hoey Park.
The murder remains unsolved and the memorial, covered with flowers, ornaments and letters, that stood at the scene of the crime has gone.
It was ordered to be taken down by the City of Duncan after outlasting the allowed time.
“To me, in my heart, they shouldn’t have taken it down but I didn’t want them to just throw it away, you can’t just throw a life away,” said Williams.
So after being notified by the City of Duncan that it would be taken down, Williams collected it all on Saturday and relocated the memorial to Nellie and Fran’s gravesites.
“Some people say they were just homeless but they were somebody’s child, somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter,” she said.
Duncan city council passed a new bylaw in January, that permits temporary memorials to be displayed on city-owned property for up to 15 months, after which it must be removed.
Williams, fears without the memorial people will forget about Nellie and Fran, and that the case will grow even colder than it is now.
“They haven’t solved [the murders], found the people that took her life, his life away,” she said.
The Vancouver Island Major Crimes Unit says the murder case is still an active investigation, but would not comment or provide any additional updates.
The City of Duncan only allows temporary memorials to be displayed on city-owned property for 15 months. (CHEK News)
Skye Ryan
