It is bad enough to lose a child to violence and even worse when that case goes unsolved, sometimes for years and years. Mother's Day reopens the wounds for these mothers. On Sunday, outside San Francisco's city hall, they brought pictures and hope, never tiring of asking for witnesses to come forward and never tiring of pleading for an end to the kind of violence that took their children away.
In San Francisco, one major obstacle to solving the crimes is a lack of witnesses. People are afraid to come forward.
"We just need people to get involved. A lot of times, people see these homicides. You could have as many as 200 people witness a homicide, but when you get there, no one knows anything," Inspector Valerie Matthews told ABC7.
Paulette Brown's son Aubrey Abrakasa was killed in 2006. She wants a secure, public place to display reward signs like the one for her son, offering $250,000 for information leading to an arrest.
"These are our children and we're going to fight like hell. I know I will," she said.
There have been 20 homicides this year in San Francisco. Police say that represents a downturn and which is freeing up some resources to work on older cases.
