Oct 11, 2024
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- The park near S. 10th Street and Kansas Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas is a place that Pamela Butler used to play. It’s now a place where many can come and remember her. “7,626 is how many days it took to get justice for her, which is almost 21 years. Stands for every day, until the day he (her killer) took his last breath,” Cherri West said about a tattoo on her arm bearing her daughter Pammy’s name. "I never imagined that I would be living this dream as a parent,” Cherri West, Pamela’s mom said. Tuesday, October the 12, 1999, Cherri West' oldest daughter called her saying Pamela had been "stolen." Kansas City coalition trying to get back to under 100 homicides yearly “Her sister was on the porch watching, her sister seen it all. She was able to describe the truck and the man. The neighbor down the street chased the truck and got the tag number.” West said she left work and got home at near S. 11th Street and Scott Avenue, in KCK, at the same time police did. A stranger, she says, took Pamela and killed her. She was found days later. So was her murderer. “It’s a nightmare. Total nightmare. It really is," West said. Saturday will mark 25 years since that day. She wants Saturday to be full of kids, simply being kids. "I want to have a big remembrance for her. I want the kids to come here and enjoy themself," she said. The day will feature hundreds of books to be passed out to kids, in honor of Pammy's love for reading. Pamela Butler isn’t the only kid being memorialized Saturday. ‘Guns to Gardens’ event in KCMO turning unwanted guns into art, tools "In the tragedy, I have become close to these people. It's sad that you have to become close to somebody else over a tragedy,” West shared. “I want people to come together to know, there’s more to life than just the tragedy.” West has had two daughters, killed in the same city, and blocks away from one another. “There’s evil in the world, you have to keep an eye out.” "My oldest daughter (Casey) was murdered just two blocks that way,” as she pointed down Kansas Avenue. Cherri says Casey Eaton was always by her side. "I want to honor Casey too. Just like if she was here to help do this,” Cherri added. Cherri also knew 11-year-old Windy Fine, before she died. She’s another life taken too soon and who will be honored Saturday. "There was something about that little girl, we connected the first night I met her. We stayed so close. She called me Aunt Cherri," West said. "She reminded me so much of Pammy.” Cherri recalled the moment Windy’s mom, Edith, called her to tell her that her daughter Windy had passed. Windy was killed in a hit-and-run on October 11, a few years after Pamela’s death. "The other, Erica Green, which everybody knows as Precious Doe. I want to honor her too.” Erica is another child whose life was cut short. West and others also want to honor her Saturday. “I just want all the children to be remembered, to show that they are loved. Just because they are not here with us, they are still loved," West said. Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android “I know she’s (Pamela) with me because that’s why I keep doing what I do. She’s telling me, you got to do this.” The location for the event Saturday is at Pammy’s Playground at Bill Clem park, located at 10th and Kansas Avenue in KCK's Armourdale neighborhood. It’s from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.. There will be food, music, books, toys and more.
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