Community Corner
Vigil Attendees Plead For Sierra's Return, Share Memories of Missing Teen
Over 500 people attended the candlelight vigil held for missing Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar Friday, with some telling stories about the teen's love of music and dance, and her spontaneous raps.
More than 500 people came out to Washington High School in Fremont Friday night to take part in a candlelight vigil for missing Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar.
After a week of few investigative leads, LaMar’s family, friends and the community came together to plead for the missing teen’s return.
“We want you to come back home,” said Sierra’s mother, Marlene LaMar. “We know you will find your way back to us.”
The 15-year-old Fremont native was last seen on March 16 before leaving for school in Morgan Hill. Sierra’s sister Danielle told vigil attendees to not give up searching for her little sis.
“We are going to find her, just keep getting her face out,” she said. “We are going to do everything we can to get her back.”
The gathering took an emotional turn when over a dozen of Sierra’s closest friends from her former high school in Fremont sang a song and shared brief stories of their missing friend.
“She became a sister to me,” said LaMar’s best friend Channah Foreman. “I really don’t know how to explain it, it’s like a part of you is missing. I really miss her and I want to see her again soon.”
Foreman and several other friends shared fond memories of LaMar and her passion for dancing and music, and how she loved to spontaneously rap.
"Sierra was really unique and outgoing, and everybody loved her," Foreman said. "She really created this aura around her that everyone loved. It's really hard to find someone like her."
LaMar was born and raised in Fremont and attended her freshmen year at Washington High School. Her friends wore Sierra’s favorite red Chuck Taylor Converse shoes Friday night, the same kind that LaMar wore all the time.
The vigil ended with a slide show of several pictures of LaMar to the tune of her favorite songs, family friends Joanna Isom and Margaret Normoyle passed around a donation box to raise money for a reward for her safe return.
According to Normoyle, donations came pouring in Friday night, including a $25,000 contribution from an anonymous local community member.
Normoyle also confirmed that Marc Klaas, whose daughter Polly was kidnapped and murdered in 1994, is on the case and helped the LaMar family set up a search center in the area and has been posting information about LaMar on the Polly Klaas Foundation’s website.
