Pictures from Las Vegas

Making more garden stones for Jim's garden....





Walking out to find the perfect spot


Releasing 28 balloons, each with messages for Jim


Sharing stories of Jim

Happy Birthday Jim from Las Vegas

28 in spirit, Jim was all around us today as we celebrated his birthday with about 15 of his friends from Las Vegas.

We caravaned up to Red Rock Canyon and found a perfect spot to hike back towards the mountains. As we hiked we decided to stop at the top of an upcoming hill and when we got there found a perfect table of sorts made out of rocks... it was if it was waiting for us. We set up Jim's pictures alongside his ashes and then passed out the 28 balloons we had brought with us. The balloons, all blue, each had a tag where we wished Jim a happy birthday, gave the website, and had room for everyone to write their own personal messages to Jim. We released the balloons and watched them as the floated towards the clear blue sky. Afterwards we brought out mini cupcakes with 28 candles and lit them, everyone able to blow out their own for Jim. We spent some time looking at many, many pictures of Jim and then knew it was time to spread Jim's ashes. We passed around the container with his ashes and each spoke of some of our memories of Jim and what he meant to us. It was so wonderful to hear what everyone had to say and only confirmed our feelings of what an amazing person Jim was... always there for everybody, never judging. As the sun went down my mom and I stepped away from the group and found the perfect spot on a hill where we let off the two last balloons and scattered Jim's ashes to the sky. As we were standing there watching the balloons float off, I looked down and found the perfect, heart shaped rock right at our feet and brought it with us. We joined the group, passed around Jim's favorite drink, Miller Lite, and toasted to Jim by all taking a drink. After many hugs and goodbyes we all headed on our way.

Several of us met for a birthday dinner to celebrate Jim's 28 year. While we expected this day to be tough, it was a perfect way to celebrate his birthday. It was hard to let part of him go but at the same time gave us peace... not complete closure but a step forward.

Much Love,
Julie and Joanne (Jim's MOM)

We will add some pictures from today in the near future.

The New Year

At 12:00 a.m. this morning, I was happy to toast to the New Year. I was after all, sick of 2008. Only a few minutes into 2009, I burst into tears for the millionth time this past week. Suddenly I realized that I was officially leaving the year that was Jim's last. Time is marching on. I miss you Jim so very much. I love you. I wish you could be a part of the march.

Love, MOM

Christmas Memories

Christmas was Jim's favorite holiday (Halloween took a close second while growing up) and he was deeply missed today as we celebrated. I had some time this morning to remember some of the many Christmas's that I spent with Jim and could easily remember the excitement of Christmas morning. Jim was a true believer. When he asked as was told about Santa, he refused to believe truth and prefered to continue on with the Santa tradition. I, on the other hand, didn't care as long as I still got presents!

Jim and I would wake up on Christmas morning and like all kids would be so excited. We would wake our parents... who were very slow to get up. Many years I remember we had to wait at the top of the stairs while our parents when down and got things ready. My dad had to make a fire, maybe prepare a little breakfast... basically torture us for a while. When we were finally told we could come down we raced down as fast as we could.

I have been told that when Jim was little he was the slowest unwrapper out there. He would open a present and then have to have take it out of the box and play with it for a while... he was satisfied that he got something he liked and just wanted to play with it, forgetting he had more to open. That changed, of course, as he got older. I remember many times ripping through our presents as fast as we could. Jim would always be very excited with almost everything he got, with the exception of the clothes that always seemed to end up under the tree! After presents we always did stockings last.

For at least one year, maybe more, I remember Jim going to the extreme of setting his alarm clock so that he would wake up right at the time that we were told it was okay to wake our parents. The only problem was that my dad went in and turned off his alarm after he was asleep!

As we got older we also starting the tradition of having some close family friends over for dinner on Christmas day. By then Jim and I would have all of our new things lined up and ready to show them, careful to make sure that we showed them everything.

Today I spend the day at my mom's with some family friends and we had a very nice time. While Jim wasn't always home at Christmas time he was still very much missed today. This is a rough time of year, as I am sure that it is for anyone who has lost someone they love. For us it is compounded by the fact that Jim's birthday is fast approaching. This year we will spend Jim's birthday surrounded by his many friends in Las Vegas. It is a trip that we are very much looking forward to and one that we very much wish that we weren't making under these circumstances.

I love you Jim, Merry Christmas.

December 11, 2008 - 8 months

I was 27 years old when Jim was born; he was 27 when he died. I would have become pregnant with him on or about April 11th, 1980; 9 months later on January 11, 1981 I gave birth to him. On January 11, 2009 he will have been gone 9 months, having passed away on April 11, 2008. Now we measure time by the minutes, hours, days, weeks and months that Jim is no longer with us....

Today is the 8 month anniversary of Jim's death. It feels like the 'window of opportunity' to discover something significant in the murder of my son has come and gone in the blink of an eye as the Detectives know as much today as they did 8 months ago.

I thank those of you who continue to check this site and blog and those of you who have written Nancy Grace. Maybe together we can get some answers.

Love, Joanne
Jim's Forever MOM

Thank you and keep up the help!

Thank you to everyone who has joined to help us get Jim's case some much needed publicity! We have been overwhelmed by the number of people willing to help and it means so much to us. (See post below for info on our effort to get on Nancy Grace... if you haven't done that yet, please consider doing that as well!)

Thanks to my cousin, I have a few more email address to add to the list if you want to keep helping. They are listed below and if you could just send a quick email telling them that you would like to see Jim's case televised that would be so hopeful.

friends@foxnews.com
oreilly@foxnews.com
ontherecord@foxnews.com

I have also contacted Greta Van Susteren's producer and would love to get them interested in Jim's case as well.

Someone out there knows what happened to Jim... more then likely more then one person knows and all it takes is for them to have the courage to speak up. Even the smallest of detail could mean the difference in bringing Justice for Jim.

Julie

Help us help Jim!!

Help us get Jim's case some much needed publicity, we are tired of waiting around and getting no where!! We would love to have Jim's case shown on CNN's Nancy Grace show and we need your help to contact the show and let them know you too want to see Jim's case televised. All we are asking is to take 5 minutes and go to http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?81 to tell them you want Jim's case on the show.

You can say anything you want about Jim, just let them know that he was a wonderful guy who didn't deserve this and his murderer needs to be found. You can give them this website(www.justiceforjim.com) as well as the Miami Crime Stoppers website where Jim's case was recently posted - that link is http://www.crimestoppersmiami.com//unsolved.aspx - he is the second case on the site.

Please feel free to pass this on to anyone who we could have missed.

Thank you so much, we really appreciate all of the support that we have received through all of this!

Julie