It's all part of a National Day of Remembrance, where people across the United States gather to remember their loved ones taken in such a violent way.
With bagpipes, testimonials, and songs each family has their own way of coping after losing a loved one.
Melinda Crowder is the Victim Advocate for Parents of Murdered Children.
"I like to tell my story to keep my daughter's memory alive. To me, more of a celebration of their life not of their passing. But to remember them in happy moments too. And then also to learn from the officials things that we need to know about the justice system," Crowder said.
Her daughter Casey's car ran out of gas along Highway 65 near Dumas in August of 2006.
"She was picked up and murdered by Kenneth Ray Osburn," Crowder said.
Osburn, convicted in Casey's death, is now awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether the death penalty will be applied to his case.
Other cases remain cold for decades after the crime.
Reverend Edna Morgan of the First Methodist Church of Pine Bluff recalls a phone call one day in college.
"My neighbor told me that my mom was dead. And I said that my mom had never been sick. How in the world could my mom be dead? And she said, 'your mom was shot to death,'" Morgan said.
Her killer has never been found more than 40 years later.
"It is our hope that no one goes through bereavement alone. I don't know what I would have done without friends, without family, without the church," Morgan added.
At the end of the ceremony, family and friends joined hands singing: "We are the survivors...left behind to carry on."