At 9:30 pm PDT tonight it will be 20 years since I last saw and talked to my son Joshua Anthony. Four and a half hours later he was murdered by 3 losers. I have no family except my daughter and she's on a fun-filled vacation in Kauai so I doubt we will talk any time soon. So I decided to express my feelings of loss to my forum family. I hope you don't mind.
Joshua and his friend David were walking to David's apartment when they were attacked and robbed by 3 gang members on a crime spree. Joshua gave them the $17 he had and they proceeded to shoot both Joshua and David. Joshua died almost instantly, David survived. Twenty years or twenty minutes, it makes no difference. The pain and loss are still the same. All day today, through the night and tomorrow I will remember everything that happened on July 29, 1995, the three-year nightmare waiting in hopes of being able to put those three murderers in prison, and now attending parole hearings for them. I would have never imagined that I would have to go inside an actual prison. When a parent loses a child, the loss is unfathomable. EVERY DAY the mind repeats what happened in an unending horror story.
Joshua lost a promising life. In 4 1/2 months he would have graduated from University of California, Berkeley. His family lost a beautiful soul who never did drugs, drank alcohol, or smoked, but spent hours with friends who did in hopes of helping them choose a better path in life. Who knows what he would have accomplished for good. Instead we're left with three losers that taxpayers have to support in prison. Yes, at least they're in prison, but . . . .
Thank you for allowing me to vent. Every day is hard, but today and tomorrow will be worse. I love you Joshua.
Joshua Anthony Hernández
Sandi