Daphne Alston a representative for the Mother's of Murdered Sons and Daughters support group and the mother of her lost son Tariq who has murdered nine years ago.
"This is real. He's not coming out of there. The only way he'll come out is if those men unscrew that and bring him out for him to rest somewhere else. He's never going to be alive again." said Alston while staring at her son's grave.
An unsolved shooting that took Daphne some time to get to. The missing piece to who was responsible for the death of her son at Fire House in Joppa was something she dwelled on for years.
"People speculate things and say things, but we don't know what happened to him," said Alston.
Harford County Detective Donald Kramer was able to break down what happened, but unfortunately, the suspect is still unknown.
"This is a large puzzle and we're just missing a few pieces. We're hoping that someone at the party itself -- some time has went by and maybe they feel the need or they're comfortable at this point where maybe they weren't before to come forward and assist," said Detective Kramer.
As of now, a stairwell inside the Joppa-Magnolia Fire House was the crime scene.
Detective Kramer says someone intended to shoot Tariq and investigators have a direction on a shooter, but not enough to make an arrest.
Daphne says she's now turned her energy to trying to bring peace to an area that's no stranger to violence, with the memory of her son guiding her steps.
"Anybody who knows me knows Tariq is not dead. I just say he's away. I'm not going to let anybody kill him. I'm not going to give any man that credit for taking Tariq's life. I'm not going to empower anybody like that."
