Vigil held in honour of missing Maple Ridge woman

Friends and family came together in Maple Ridge Sunday night for a candlelight vigil dedicated to a woman who has been missing since June.

Homicide investigators haven’t confirmed the identity of a body found at the home of 43-year-old Jessica Cunningham in late August. Her partner has been arrested and charged with indignity to human remains.

Cunningham’s friend Kristin Rasko helped organize the vigil in her honour and for victims of intimate partner violence.

“As a community, we need to stand together against all of this. We can’t live in silence anymore… It’s killing us. So as a community, we have to stand together,” Rasko told 1130 NewsRadio.

Speaking at the vigil, Rasko said Cunningham had a gift for bringing people together, and Sunday night was a continuation of that legacy.

“Her memory will live on in the way we care for each other in the community we build in her name as we lay her candles,” said Rasko.

She did not want to speculate about the circumstances of Cunningham’s disappearance, but said she hopes Cunningham’s partner shares whatever he knows for “some kind of closure, some kind of truth to the matter.”

Rasko hopes the vigil helps victims of intimate partner violence feel encouraged to seek help.

“Jessica was a beautiful soul. She didn’t deserve this. Nobody deserves this.”

—With files from Michelle Meiklejohn