

'We won't give up'
Amaris DeNeal, 17, of District Heights cries at the March 26 vigil commemorating the two month anniversary of the death of Karen and Karissa Lofton of Largo. (Brenda Ahearn/The Gazette)
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Community remains on edgeA dog's bark, a child's shriek, a car driving by late at night. These things will never be the same on several quiet, tree-laden streets in Largo. Anthony Whitaker lives a mile from the home where Karen Lofton and her daughter, Karissa, were shot and killed in January, and one-tenth of a mile from the scene of another mother-daughter homicide seven weeks later. "People must think this is a perfect place for crime ... it's so dark," he said, sitting in the living room of his rancher-style home in the 1000 block of Trebing Lane. |
Families turn to God, police for answersSix months after her sister and niece were killed, their obituary remains affixed to the windshield of Patricia Smith's car as a constant reminder that their homicide remains unsolved. Smith, 40, of Hyattsville said the last time she saw and talked to Delores and Ebony Dewitt was at the Hyattsville house of Patricia and Delores' mother, Rosa, about a week before the homicides. "I'm a nurse as well. We had plans for the future," Smith said, which included starting a nursing business with Delores Dewitt. "It's like someone ripped my whole world apart." |
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