Saturday night, November 05, a candlelight vigil in remembrance of Jayme Thomas, the 19-year old woman killed early Saturday morning, was held at the Compass Rose in the Des Moines Marina.

Maybe 100 or so people gathered. At one point a policeman came and joined the group, staying only a few minutes and left.

As the group slowly moved away, some of the candles continued to burn through the night until only two remained burning in the early morning.

Sunday morning at 4:15 a.m. a policeman came, parked near the Compass Rose, got out of his vehicle, walked onto the Compass Rose and paused near one of the still burning candles. After a few moments he walked over to the fence overlooking the water and then back to the other still burning candle. He paused again.

Watching this from my window and observing the respect shown by these policemen brought tears to my eyes.

As the tears rolled down my cheeks the policeman went back to his car and slowly drove away.

This is a caring community.

Arlene Knight
Des Moines