Five months after a roadside memorial was erected for Tyler Parchment, 24, who was killed in a single-vehicle crash in October 2023, his mother, to her distress, discovered the sign had been vandalised.
Ava Cassandra Fearon, who wanted her only son to be remembered as a “good boy”, said the sign, located along Shamrock Road near the junction of Matilda Drive in Savannah, had been spray-painted white over his image.
“I was shocked,” Fearon told the Compass.
“I couldn’t believe it… I didn’t know what to think. I started to get really angry because there’s no way to understand why somebody would do such a malicious act.”
She said, “At first, I thought that the person was targeting me or my son, or one of our family [members] that they were trying to do something to hurt us or get back at me, although I don’t know if I have any enemies like that and I don’t know if my son [had] enemies like that.”
Fearon was able to clean the sign with the help of her husband. She then posted what happened on her social media, with many from the community showing love, sympathy, concern and anger.
“It just can’t stay like this. I’m not trying to make my son out to be a saint, but he really was a good person, genuine, caring, considerate of others. For this to have been done, it really made me feel bad… that somebody did something so deliberate.”
Fearon said a lot of family members make sure to take the route that goes past the sign to remember young Parchment. “We took a lot of time to choose a picture that we thought showed his personality. When people cross, a lot of people would pray, think and remember the family. It brings peace to some people when they cross that sign.”
Fearon said her son’s memorial sign isn’t the only one that’s been vandalised. Similar signs for Amber Martinez located in East End and Jordan Ebanks in North Side have been vandalised in the same way.
“Since putting up the post on social media, their mothers have reached out and expressed their reaction and concerns. When I heard about that, we agreed it has to be a malicious act.”
Although the families have teamed up to clean and restore the signs to their original state, Fearon said, “Jordan’s was sprayed painted again, after it was cleaned two weeks ago. This level of disrespect and disregard for a memorial and that young boy is so disappointing.”
Fearon said they contacted the police about the vandalism to determine who might be involved. Police told the Compass in a statement on Friday that they’ve “recently received two reports of vandalism to roadside plaques/memorial sites. One in relation to a site in East End, on the 26th February, and the other in relation to a site in Bodden Town on the 27 February. Both appear to have taken place over that weekend.”
The statement noted, “The complainants were spoken to, and reports logged at their request. No suspects have been identified at this time. If anyone has any information about these incidents or the persons involved, the police encourage reporting information to the nearest police station.”
“I wasn’t going to pursue a police report, I just wanted to bring it to the public’s attention,” Fearon said. “I had also hoped that the person would see my post and have a change of heart, or maybe someone would know the person or persons involved and speak to them.”
Fearon said she’s removed her son’s sign “because I didn’t want any more damage to it, and persons are still asking about it”.
She added, “Some didn’t know what happened or even why it was moved, and others want to know [if we] will put it back, because so many persons already had that connection, and [they] were so used to seeing the memorial there.”
The distraught mother said in her time of grief and the loss of her child, the only thing that keeps her going is “the grace of God and faith in Him”.
“I just believe that God is taking care of me, and I need to be able to live in a way that is reflective of that.
“We should support each other,” Fearon said, adding, “there has been so much kindness shown to me and my family throughout this whole thing. This act is not going to tear us apart.”
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