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Isabel Celis
(August 27, 2005 to
April 21, 2012)
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We, the
comrades of Unit 1012, will honor and remember 11-year-old Isabel Celis on August
27 and April 21 every year.
We, the
comrades of Unit 1012: The VFFDP, will make her one of The
82 murdered children of Unit 1012, where we will not forget her. Let us
remember how she lived and not how she died. We will always support her family
members.
Hundreds attend
funeral for Isabel Celis, once-missing Tucson girl
More than 450 mourners gathered
Saturday morning at St. Augustine Cathedral in Tucson to celebrate the short
life of 6-year-old Isabel Celis, who disappeared five years ago.
Her remains were discovered last month
in a remote part of Pima County, ending the hope that she would someday be
reunited with her family. No arrests have been made.
A small card handed to attendees listed
Isabel's birth date as Aug. 27, 2005, and her death date as March 3, 2017
— just under a month before police publicly announced that her body had
been found.
Family and friends wore purple. Before
Mass began, attendees waited to pay their respects to the family, faces red
with grief as they hugged Isabel's parents. The church was crowded with
families, many with children who weren't even born when Isabel went
missing.
An easel at the front of the church held
large photos of Isabel, her shoulder-length brown hair framing her beaming
face. Pink flowers lined the altar.
Before the Mass began, Isabel's mother,
Becky Celis, standing with Isabel's father, Sergio Celis, thanked the crowd for
the years of prayers and support.
"We, our family, thank you guys so
much," she said, asking everyone to "remember my baby girl happy and
playing. Not the way she was taken, but the good memories."
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Isabel Celis
(August 27, 2005 to
April 21, 2012)
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Mystery
surrounding the death
During the service, conducted in English
and Spanish, a mariachi band played before the Scripture readings and
prayers.Speakers mentioned the mystery surrounding the girl's death.
Father Miguel Mariano spoke of the
beauty of Isabel’s innocence that was taken from her family. He directed
mourners to embrace a comforting “sacred silence” aimed to help them remember
the young girl’s laugh or voice once more. The answers surrounding her
death, Mariano said, would be found in the precious silence.
The Mass concluded with "When You
Wish Upon a Star" played on the violin.
As participants exited, they were handed
pink and purple balloons. Becky and Sergio donned purple sunglasses. Together,
the crowd released the balloons into the cloudless blue sky.
Relatives, friends and other
mourners lingered outside, sharing memories.
Robert Snyder, Isabel's maternal
grandfather, said it was heartwarming to see the outpouring of support.
“She was just so friendly
and already had a sense of humor. She was just a lovely, lovely young lady,” Snyder said as tears welled
behind his sunglasses.
Snyder looked out from the edge of the
courtyard to the crowd where children the same age Isabel was at the time of
her disappearance ate cookies and doughnuts.
“It’s hope," he said. "We all
have to have hope.”
READ MORE:
Reported
missing in 2012
Isabel was reported missing from her
home near Broadway Boulevard and Craycroft Road on the morning of April 21,
2012, when her father, Sergio, went to wake up Isabel in her bedroom for a
baseball game and found she wasn’t there. Her mother had already left for work
when Sergio Celis called police. Police records indicate Sergio found Isabel’s
bedroom window open and the window screen off and damaged.
An exhaustive search by police and
volunteers over 18 months that included going door to door talking to neighbors
netted no results. Investigators interviewed neighbors, canvassed parks and
searched a landfill in the hopes of finding the girl.
A neighbor told police she heard male
voices outside her bedroom window at about 6:30 the morning the girl was
reported missing. She said there were no sounds that indicated a struggle.
Police have never named a suspect in
connection with the case. Isabel’s parents, particularly her father, were
subject to intense scrutiny for weeks following the disappearance. The couple
would later make statements concerning a family member who had moved away
shortly after the girl’s disappearance as being uncooperative with private
investigators retained by the family.
Details of how
Isabel’s remains were discovered are scarce.
"We see this as absolutely a
tragedy," Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus said in a news conference
following the discovery of the body. "We were all hoping to find her
alive."
Police refused to release them,
citing “unintended consequences” they could potentially have on the case.
Magnus would not state if police had identified new suspects or whether someone
had already been arrested.
However, he said the tragic discovery
made earlier this year was “not by happenstance.”
"This is not an ending we would
have hoped for, but this is not the end to the case," Magnus said.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2017/04/29/tucson-funeral-missing-isabel-celis/307921001/
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Isabel Celis
(August 27, 2005 to
April 21, 2012)
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OTHER LINKS:
SEEK THE DEATH
PENALTY FOR DOUBLE CHILD KILLER, CHRISTOPHER CLEMENTS [FEBRUARY 11, 2019]
http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/052512_celis_file/raw-documents-celis-investigation-file/
