It was a sliver of sunshine in the life of a family struck by heartbreaking tragedy.
Close to three years after their mother, Alyssa, was found murdered along Orillia’s waterfront, daughters Lorelie, 5, and Haylee, 3, darted about the covered picnic area where members of the OPP Golden Helmets Precision Motorcycle Team had gathered in their dress uniforms.
Moments later, the girls’ grandmother, Amanda Watson, received a cheque for $6,000 on their behalf – an investment in their future education, she said on Friday.
The contribution would “honour the legacy that (Alyssa) left behind,” said OPP Det. Constable Tim Ticknor, a member of the team responsible for investigating the August 2006 murder.
That legacy, Ticknor told the audience that had gathered at Couchiching Beach Park, was “two beautiful girls.”
The funds arrived courtesy of the Canada 911 Ride Foundation, a non-profit group dedicated to helping families of fallen emergency service workers and children whose parents are victims of violent crime.
Taking its cue from a U.S. organization that formed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Canadian group raises money through an annual police-escorted motorcycle ride.
Ticknor and lead investigator Adele Gordon applied for a portion of the funds in the hope of assisting the girls, who live with their grandmother and aunt, Alana Watson.
“We felt that Orillia as a community would like to see something positive come out of something so horribly negative,” added Ticknor.
Said Amanda Watson, Alyssa’s mother:
“I feel very honoured and humbled that they thought enough of us that they would want to do that,” she added.
The body of 20-year-old Alyssa Karen Watson was discovered Aug. 19, 2006 near a decommissioned rail line.
A coroner determined she had been strangled to death.
The man accused in her death, Roy Niemi, was arrested in Markham last December and is charged with murder and indignity to a body.
A judicial pre-trial is scheduled for Tuesday of next week, with a preliminary hearing likely to follow in the fall, Ticknor told Orillia Today.
Amanda said she hoped to purchase a bench and plaque to be installed along a waterfront trail in honour of her late daughter, once she is able to raise the money.
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