Vigil recalls Valpo woman

 Family and friends remember Jamie Gray, who was fatally stabbed.
Date: January 24, 2005

"She was my dad's favorite niece," said Melinda Gray, Jamie Gray's cousin.

 Melinda's father, while he lit dozens of candles for Sunday night's vigil, agreed."She was my closest niece," Benny Gray said. "Whenever I think of her I still see the little girl who likes to sit on the pinball machines at the PX while her father and I played."

 Others attending the candlelight vigil near the spot where 29-year-old Gray was found stabbed Wednesday remember the grown-up Jamie. She was described as "always smiling" and as a woman who "loved life and loved everybody."

 "She saw no bad in anyone," said a Gray cousin from Kentucky.

 Despite the freezing temperatures and more than one foot of snow, more than 50 people came to support the family and remember Gray. Residents of Jamestown Apartments, where Gray lived, looked out windows and doors and some came outside to light a candle in her honor.

 Andrew Goin, a Jamestown resident, said he didn't know Gray well, but that she was always "really nice" and "pleasant" when their children played together. Goin and another resident, Jenny Myer, agreed that Gray's death was a shock.

 "This is a good place to raise your kids," Goin said.

 Jeanine Szajko, a former Jamestown resident and former co-worker of Jordan Gray, said the whole situation is hard to believe.

 "I used to live here and I didn't even lock my door -- it's unreal," Szajko said.

 Gray's mother, Deni Weber of Valparaiso organized the vigil to fight the "horrific memories" associated with that spot.

 "We wanted to create a different memory of this spot -- overcome evil with good," Weber said. "The purpose of this vigil is for me and my son, her brother, and for the ones who found her here."

 Gray, the mother of a 7-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, was just beginning to turn her life around when it suddenly and tragically ended. She had just started a new job at Kmart on Calumet Avenue and was planning to go to college at Purdue University North Central, where she would study psychology and writing, her family said.

 Then sometime after 11 p.m. Wednesday she was attacked in her parking lot, at Jamestown Apartments on Virginia Park Drive, Valparaiso. Gray was pronounced dead at 12:14 a.m. Thursday from multiple stab wounds to the stomach, back and neck.

 Detectives from the Valparaiso Police Department and Porter County Sheriff's Department are investigating the case, with a total of eleven officers working up to 16-hours per day following every lead they get.

 "The police have been incredible," Weber said. "We're very indebted to them for everything they've done."

 As of press time no one has been charged. Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of Jamie Gray's killer.

 To report information call 1-800-342-7867 or VPD at 462-2135.