News14.com

  61º

09/19/2010 07:12 PM

Community mourns for murder victim

By: Loretta Boniti

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

RALEIGH -- Jaquetta Thomas, known by some as Jackie, was murdered in 1991. Greg Taylor was convicted of that crime and went to prison for nearly two decades. Then in February, a panel of three judges declared him innocent. Now Thomas' family is left wondering if Taylor didn't do it, who did?

“It's never going to be closure,” said Thomas' daughter Sierra Pharr. "In that we still don't know who did it. So there is never going to be closure.”

On Sunday, at the site of her murder, Thomas' family, friends, and supporters came together to remember her. So did Greg Taylor and his family, whom have become a support system for the Thomas family.

“I know that it was tragic what happened to you," Thomas' sister Yolanda Littlejohn told the Taylors. “You know my heart went out to your family, but know that my family is still hurting.”

The Raleigh Police Department watched as the community mourned. They say they are committed to finding out who took Thomas' life.

“The family of Jaquetta Thomas has endured and fought through this investigation for the last 19 years,” said Sgt. Brian Limper. “We would like to bring them some type of closure." Limper says new leads are being developed in the case and he is hopeful a resolution will be found soon.

Thomas' family says they don't want people to forget about the love they lost so many years ago. “That she was somebody,” said Pharr. “Not just who the police portrayed her in '91 to be. Some person on the street. She had a family who cared about her.”