LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A 16-year-old Louisville girl was killed in front of her younger sisters in Louisville's Shawnee Neighborhood in a drive-by shooting, and her family is still waiting for answers and an arrest.
Thursday, exactly one year later, Nylah Linear's family retraced her final steps.
The walk was organized by her mother, Candy Linear, who said Nylah was with her two little sisters walking from their house at 44th and Market to their aunt's house at Market and Cecil Avenue on July 21, 2021. Less than 30 minutes after she made the four-block jaunt, Nylah was dead.
"On July 21st, I received a call that my daughter had been shot, and I arrived here. Right here," Candy Linear said while standing near the corner of Market and Cecil. "To my baby's body on the ground."
Nylah's family talked to WDRB News last year as part of the "Louisville In Crisis" special, revealing the impact of record-breaking violent crime in Louisville.
"The person was in the car and shooting and I guess they couldn't see where they were going and they shot my sister," Nylah's 9-year-old sister Kennedy Clancy recalled.
Linear had just gotten home from work, picked up her sisters and began the walk around the corner to a cookout at her aunt's house. Candy Linear said her daughter was not the target of the drive-by.
"That moment forever changed my life, because I lost something so great that I can never get back again," she said.
Retracing her daughter's last steps, the pain is, at times, too much for Linear as she crouches in the streets and sobs deeply. She was joined Thursday by an army of support. Among the crowd were moms who know the same pain.
"It's heartbreaking," Winkey Williams said. "It tears your heart, your soul and your spirit up."
Williams' son, Ralph Jeffries, was killed in 2018. Four years later and, much like Nylah, there have still been no arrests in his case.
Louisville broke its homicide record in 2021 with 188 murders. Louisville Metro Police have said shootings are down this year, but still roughly half the cases from last year remain unsolved.
"We're just getting started," Williams said. "Because anytime I can do anything to help a child, to help a grieving mother, I'm going to do it."
Candy Linear puts purpose behind her pain having created a foundation in her daughter's name. T-shirts were sold at the walk as part of a fundraiser for the Nylah Linear Foundation. The foundation serves as an outreach to families who lose a child to gun violence, providing everything from warm meals to helping cover funeral expenses.
"It's a lot of days I don't want to fight," she said. "You still want them to remember what you lost."
It's part of the process for a family taking one step toward healing, one step toward peace, and hoping the attention brings them one step closer to justice for Nylah.
The Linear family was also presented with a proclamation from Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer's office on Thursday, declaring July 21 "Nylah Linear Day" in the city.
Police still have no suspects. Anyone with information about Linear's case is asked to call LMPD's anonymous crime tip line at (502) 574-LMPD (5673). Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the department's online crime tip portal by clicking here.
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