Nearly 100 people came out for a walk to remember loved ones.
Members of the Muncie and Ball State communities came together Saturday for the second-annual Garth Walk, which commemorates the lives of those lost to violent crimes.
The walk went on, traveling from Muncie Central High School to Minnetrista and back, despite the chilly temperatures, rain and wind.
Angie Mock, Rector's sister and organizer of the Garth Walk, said she was prepared for the lower turnout.
"Last year we had over 215 people ... and of course the weather was beautiful. I knew we wouldn't have the turnout we had last year, but I knew that we had enough support and enough families who needed to do this, and I knew that we would have people here." Mock said.
The event started last year in response to the death of Garth Rector, a Ball State employee of nearly 30 years, who was killed in his home March 21, 2008.
Three speakers came to Garth Walk: Delaware County Building Commissioner and youth minister Marwin Strong, Delaware County Sheriff Chaplain Rev. Rory Bond and Miss Ball State 2010 Savannah Teegarden.
Teegarden's sister Heather was 19 when she was killed in her downtown Muncie apartment on Feb. 2, 1999.
"You often feel so, so alone. You have no one to really turn to," Teegarden said. "I just want to give the Rector family and anyone else who may not have a solved case some type of encouragement and some hope that there will be vengeance, there will be justice served."
Through their loss, the Rector family has turned this tragedy into something beneficial to themselves and to the community.
"I've had the privilege to see both their pain from their loss of their husband, their brother, their father, their friend, and I've also seen their passion to keep his memory alive and to see justice done, in order to see closure to the single most horrific event of their lives," Bond said.
A balloon launch followed the walk, where people were able to fill out cards with notes to their loved ones to attach to deep purple balloons and "send the messages up to our loved ones in heaven," Mock said.
It is the hope of the Rector family to continue the Garth Walk after Rector's death is solved, Marilyn Rector, Garth's mother, said.
"I'd like to continue the Garth Walk for the other families that have lost loved ones. It's good to be with them because they know exactly how you feel," she said.
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