Rashelle Carpenter was my beautiful 17 year-old niece. She was shot at a Halloween party in a very nice neighborhood in Phoenix, AZ, right before midnight on Saturday, October 22nd 2005. Her friends immediately rushed her to the hospital where she was pronounced D.O.A. in the early morning on October 23rd, 2005. The outpouring of love and support for Rashelle and our family has been staggering and beyond tremendous. Every TV news channel, some radio stations, and the local paper have been covering the story.

Rashelle was nothing short of an incredibly bright star to everyone she met, and an Angel to those she knew. I have spent the last eight months listening to stories of how she had inspired others to improve their lives. The consensus is that she was an angel that was WAY ahead of her years. As everyone seemed to say, "she couldn't make an enemy of anyone." I have also been told by MANY adults, that she was more like their mother than a child. We held Rashelle's memorial service in Phoenix Wednesday October 26th and hundreds of people were there. However, hundreds more could not make the mid-week (school-night) service.