Vancouver police on Friday announced charges against Kirkland Warren, a man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend Meshay Melendez and her 7-year-old daughter Layla Stewart.
"No words can express the fact that they now bury their only daughter and granddaughter for a senseless crime that never had to take place," said Michelle Bart, president and founder of NWCAVE, and the spokesperson for Melendez and Stewart's family.
"I've never had to make funeral arrangements," said Bart, "let alone ask for a casket for a mother and daughter to be buried together. We need to get justice."
Bart said a lot of what she tells KATU comes from Nichole Norris, Melendez's mother and Stewart's grandmother.
"She can't process any of this. She's very numb on this nightmare," Bart said.
Melendez and Stewart were last seen with their accused killer Kirkland Warren on March 12.
Their bodies were found on March 22.
The medical examiner's report said Melendez died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Her daughter Stewart, from two gunshots to the head.
"What kind of monster shoots a woman and shoots the baby?" Bart said.
Warren was previously jailed on other charges, including a violation of his bond in a murder case in Arkansas, where he was also accused of shooting a man in the head.
"If he was afraid of the people in Arkansas," Bart said, "he better be afraid of the people in this community, because we're going to get justice. And you're going to wish you hadn't come to Vancouver, Washington, because people that come to this town do not harm our residents and they do not harm our children."
Warren was also arrested earlier this month on charges of assaulting Melendez and firing a gun into her apartment.
He posted bond.
He was released again and was issued a no-contact order protecting Melendez.
Bart said it's the system that failed them.
"A man that's wanted for murder in another state, and now we're letting you out so that you can complete your mission. We can't do this. We can't keep doing this," she said.
And now, Bart said the family just hopes Warren pleads out. That way the family doesn't have to endure a trial.
"She wants him to pay the ultimate price," Bart said. "No matter what comes out of his mouth from here on out, we're going to get justice."
Funeral arrangements for the girls are currently being made.
"One funeral will take place," said Bart, "but we're burying two people. These two girls were very much loved."
Vancouver police declined an interview Friday because this is still an ongoing investigation.
But they did tell us they found evidence in cars linked to Warren.
Warren's court date is set for Monday.