After
meeting to discuss the future of the memorial set up in Cathedral Park, friends and family reconvened on the park Friday, July 10, to begin moving pieces of remembrance from the park's monument to a new location next to the gates of the park's northeast side.
The memorial honors teenagers Rose Simmons, Julian Martinez, Kate Klein and Alyssa Trouw. The four youths were killed June 28 in a car crash. Scott Owens, the driver of the car that hit the teens, has been charged with four counts of vehicular homicide and had a blood alcohol content twice the legal limit, according to police.
The new location for the memorial is where Rose's father, John Simmons, and a small group of friends have set up a new site with cinder blocks and a large marble sheet. It is currently not clear whether the city will allow this piece of the park to act as a permanent memorial or whether it is another temporary location. The mood was somber as candles, clothing, cards and other objects were taken from the monument and placed on and around this new shrine.
Simmons noted that he had spoken to the owners of the buildings directly east of the park and that they might consider allowing a permanent location on their land only a few feet from where the shrine now sits. Though it now seems hopeful that this memorial will find a place to stay in
the near future, Simmons noted sadly, “This will happen again. We'll all be doing this again, for others, until something drastic changes.”
Avree Koffman, who was driving the car carrying the teenagers, is now out of the University of New Mexico Hospital.
Santa Fe Reporter