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Family, friends hold vigil for teen found in trash can
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> Photos | Condolences
Sunday, April 27, 2008
DAYTON — Robert Walker knelt in front of a makeshift shrine taking shape in an alley off Jersey Street in memory of his daughter.
After dripping wax on the cement, he fixed another candle lighting the collection of flowers, signs, stuffed animals and balloons left against a garage for Heather Nicole Walker on Sunday, April 27. The 18-year-old Dayton woman's body was found a day earlier stuffed in a trash can in the alley, just north of East Third Street.
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Her parents reported her missing on Feb. 9. She was last seen in the parking lot of Sam's Market, 3501 E. Third St., they said.
"Somebody killed her. It's a murder investigation," Robert Walker said Sunday before the vigil, which drew about 100 people who filled a section of Jersey Street leading to the alley and shrine.
Tammy Walker cried and hugged friends and family after recalling for reporters the sick feeling she had when her daughter — who had run away before — failed to call or return for her purse, cell phone or other possessions she would have taken if she'd planned to have been gone long.
The family also had planned to celebrate her brother's birthday on Feb. 9.
"I knew in the pit of my stomach something was very, very wrong," Tammy Walker said through tears. "She had her problems. She was straightening up."
Police have released no information on Walker's death, but family members said homicide detectives were working on the case.
On Sunday, the Montgomery County coroner's office verified a full autopsy was conducted on Walker's body, but declined to provide other details, citing the continuing police investigation.
On Monday, April 28, Robert Walker said fighters from his mixed-martial-arts gym in Moraine and around the area would gather at his gym, then travel to the alley shrine for another memorial service at 8:30 p.m.
Heather Walker, who attended Ruskin and Wilbur Wright schools, is also survived by a son, Devin, 2, and a brother, Robert Walker Jr., 20.
A special MySpace page was set up to remember her, one of several online memorials created Sunday.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2261 or lbudd@DaytonDailyNews.com.
