PORTLAND, Ore. — Not a day goes by that Janicey Navarro Barajas does not think about her older sister, Evelin Navarro Barajas.
"Even if I'm just driving I look up in the sky and just think of her," Janicey said. "Any moment of the day. You almost feel guilty you're here and she's not here. That her life was robbed."
It was June 18, 2020. Evelin, only 23 at the time, was hanging out with friends in a parking lot near Northeast Killingsworth and Cully when someone pulled up in a car and started shooting. A man was injured by the gunfire. Evelin was killed in what turned out to be one of more than 900 shootings that year.
"We've heard wrong place at the wrong time," Janicey said. "But even if she was there enjoying herself with friends, there were families there, there were children there, it shouldn't have happened. That shouldn't have happened."
Evelin's murder is one of four cases Crime Stoppers of Oregon is highlighting this week. The non-profit is offering cash rewards of up to $2,500 for information that leads to an arrest in Evelin's case. Crime Stoppers is also pleading for information about the shooting deaths of Julian Heredia on July 10, 2020, Huarleen Bain on October 23, 2020, and Adau Duop on February 20, 2022.
"You have to live it to understand how painful it is and situations we have to go through," Sonia Barajas, Evelin's mother, said. "Maybe one morning you wake up and you're okay and the next day you don't even want to get up."
Sonia will never get over the senseless murder of her Evelin, the oldest of her four kids.
"She is the one who taught me how to be a mom."
Sonia is now learning how to live with a broken heart. Just about the only thing that will mend it is an arrest in the case.
"It's not going to give my daughter back but it'll give us peace and one less person out there on the streets doing things they're not supposed to be doing."
Anyone with information about any of these shootings is urged to contact Crime Stoppers of Oregon.