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Local NewsVigil for Hit-and-Run VictimBy TMJ4 Staff
MILWAUKEE - Melissa Bavier’s family gathered at 16th and Locust Saturday night while police continued to search for the driver who killed the little girl.
Police say they have been checking out leads to find the vehicle that hit Melissa. However, none of those leads has panned out.
At the vigil, there were candles, prayers and sad realizations: “She'll never have any children. She'll never get married. She'll never have a life here," one speaker at the vigil explained.
Melissa was hit by a car Thursday night at 16th and Locust. She was leaving a corner grocery store on the way to her foster home.
A corner grocery store surveillance camera captured the accident. The video shows a girl waving to her friend Melissa. The back of Melissa's head appears in the bottom of the frame moments before a car hit and killed her.
The speed limit along Locust at that intersection is 25 mph. Police said the driver who hit and killed Melissa was going much faster.
"The neighbors can see what happened to this little girl, and it'll teach these people to watch their children better," Melissa's aunt, Linda Morgan, said.
"Walk with them to the store,” Melissa's step aunt Shunta Humphrey said. ”Don't let them go by themselves because, you know, people are not going to watch out for your children."
Melissa’s biological mother, Kathy Bolden, said she wants the hit and run driver to see her family's grief. "I have to make funeral arrangements,” she said. “It’s so, it's hard. It's very hard."
Melissa lived less than a block away from the intersection in a foster home. She and her younger brother were removed from their mother's custody about one year ago.
"Whoever knows who did it, they should come forward," Bolden told TODAY'S TMJ4 reporter Tom Murray. "If they had to look at that little body in a casket, if they knew their child was hurt like that, their world would come crashing down."
The vehicle that hit Melissa is described as an older model GM, possibly an Oldsmobile or a Buick, dark green or blue with tinted windows. If you have information, call Milwaukee Police at 414 935-7302.
Visitation will be held Tuesday from 4-7 p.m. and Wednesday from 6-7 p.m. at the New Pitts Mortuary East Chapel at 2031 West Capitol Drive.
The funeral will take place at 12 p.m. Wednesday at the Brown Deer Baptist Church at 7908 North 51st Street.
You can make a donation to the Melissa Bavier Fund. It can be dropped off at any Milwaukee area Tri-City National Bank location.
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