Over one hundred people kept a drizzling rain from extinguishing their candles for 14 minutes Monday night – one minute for each year that Josiaz "Jojo" Aragon lived.
Aragon was brutally murdered last Monday, two days before his 15th birthday, near a dusty ballfield behind the Southwest Recreation Center in Denver.
It was the second vigil in four days for the fallen eight grader who was “never shy, up-front and bold,” according to childhood friend Dominic Field.
Questions are mounting in the shocking case which has seen few leads.
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One of the greatest mysteries surrounding the teen’s violent death was the silence when it happened, just after 1 pm on a hot Monday afternoon. Around the time Aragon was taking his last breath, no one heard a scuffle or a shout even though he was beaten, stabbed and shot.
Just 25 yards from the baseball diamond down a winding sidewalk, a lifeguard who was on duty for the rec center’s free swim period told Denver Police that he heard a “pop” – but no voices.
A neighbor whose backyard is within earshot of the baseball diamond said her husband was home after lunch on Aug. 8, but he didn’t hear anything, and besides that, her dog didn’t react, even though he “usually barks at the sound of fireworks," said Sue Ashman-Smith, who added, “It’s just so horrible what that kid must have felt and gone through.”
Ashman-Smith said detectives knocked on her door hoping that she had a home surveillance camera which may have recorded some clue of what happened to Aragon in broad daylight, but that she couldn’t help.
“I feel I let them down," she said.
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“If they did this to a kid, what would they do to an adult?” asked one mourner, who declined to give his name. “Hold your kids close. Don’t let them go.”
Friends, family and neighbors who came to remember Aragon hugged and cried into each other's shoulders. Some carried umbrellas and others stood soaking in the soft rain.
Around the corner from the rec center, at least three Denver police vehicles kept watch at the request of Aragon’s family. Denver Police spokesman Doug Schepman told The Denver Gazette that police have no updates “at this time.”
A ring of floral bouquets, religious candles and stuffed animals surrounded a tree where Aragon’s body was found.
"What was he doing so far from home?" one friend asked.
Another said his parents were frantic because he was missing for hours on the day he was killed.
When the 14 minutes were up, mourners blew out their candles and attached them to rope around the tree. They placed long-stemmed white roses on the growing shrine.
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One girl in a t-shirt, which showed a photo of Aragon on the front and the words “JoJo Steppin” on the back, softly laid a letter she wrote to her friend, folded in plastic to keep it dry.
“I wish I could have saved you, baby bro,” it said. “I wish it was me, not you.”
There's a $2000 reward for any information that leads to Aragon's killer. Metro Denver Crime Stoppers can be reached at (720) 913-7867.