COBB COUNTY, Ga. — When Nancy and Frank Aguilar’s son Jesse was killed in 2006, the couple said they found strength and family in their local Parents of Murdered Children (POMC) chapter in southern California.
When they moved to Georgia, they noticed there were no groups like POMC to offer support, so they decided to do something about it.
“They were having a town hall meeting in Marietta. It was pouring, raining. And I told Frank, I said, 'We’re going to go crash this meeting and introduce ourselves and we’re gonna tell him we want to open up something here,'” said Aguilar.
Aguilar is part of the team that worked to put the group together with the help of the Cobb County District Attorney's Office.
Cobb County D.A. Flynn Broady said he’s reminded every day when he walks into his office of all the people in the community who would benefit from the new support group.
“When you see those pictures, you have to realize there’s a family behind every single one of them. Those families go through a grief process, go through a mourning process. So, 'What do they do to strengthen their resolve and carry on with life?'” said Broady.
The D.A.’s office has a wall with some of the names, pictures and dates of people who were murdered in Cobb County.
All of these cases have been solved and their murderers convicted, but Cobb County District Attorney officials said they are running out of space on the wall and are now looking to reconfigure the pictures and possibly expand to a wall on another floor of this building.
The support group is open to anyone who has lost a loved one to violent crime.
Aguilar said she’s hoping to fill in the gap for families like hers, who just need to be around other people who understand their unique struggle.
“When I was introduced to Parents of Murdered Children, I thought, ‘What do they know about how I feel?’ But, you know what? That first meeting, they knew how I felt. They became my family,” said Aguilar.
The support group’s first meeting is on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at 6:30 p.m. at the Cobb Family Advocacy Center on the corner of Fairground and Haley Streets in Marietta.