Five years have gone by since Christine Malone, a 45-year-old mother of 8, was found dead in a field along Bessemer Avenue near East 93rd Street.
On Wednesday, the community held a vigil to call attention to her loss and the unsolved murders of other women in her neighborhood.
Many of them, including Malone’s son Merlin, say the violence must stop.
“I no longer want to sit back and continue to be quiet. I really need some answers,” he said.
Malone was strangled to death and Merlin was among the last people to see her alive, shortly before she left their home for a walk down East 93rd.
“My mom could vibe with anybody on any level, that was the greatest thing about her,” he said. “She was a social butterfly.”
He cannot understand why anyone would take her life. Her killer has never been caught.
“You broke up a family. Why would you do that?” Merlin asked. “What was the purpose? What was the reason?”
His family is not alone.
Over the years, groups including the “Imperial Women Coalition” have maintained that Malone’s killer likely had other victims too.
Jazmine Trotter was strangled to death and found along East 93rd days before Malone died. The unsolved murders of Ashley Leszeski and Jameela Hasan also fueled fears of a possible serial killer.
It is why the community can never let March 28th go.
In the years since, men like Michael Madison, a convicted sex offender, disposed of victims in trash bags while Christopher Whitaker tortured and killed Alianna Defreeze, a 14-year-old going to school.
Most recently Miriam Johnson, a mother from Cleveland Heights, was found shot and stabbed in a garbage can nearby.
Community leaders say something has got to give, as families hold on to hope.
“You’ve got to try to stop it; it’s the human thing to do,” Merlin Malone said.
Cleveland Police never confirmed whether the murders were the work of a serial killer or killers, yet have not ruled out the theory either.
A recent Channel 3 News investigation provided new statistical data the department is reviewing.