Web site set up to pay tribute to slain UA student
Posted on Sunday, October 9, 2005
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/33062/
A memorial Web site to pay tribute to slain University of Arkansas student April Renetta Love, 20, has received at least 20,000 hits so far, according to a public relations firm that represents Memory-Of. com, which offers sites to memorialize people on the Internet.
Love was found dead in her Fayetteville apartment on Sept. 15, and her death has been ruled a homicide by the Arkansas Medical Examiner’s office, which ruled that she died of asphyxiation.
Brandon Sanders, 20, of Nashville, Ark., who is being held in the Washington County Jail on $500,000 bond, is suspected of causing her death, but he has yet to be charged with a crime.
In addition to some 20,000 visitors to the Web site, there have been 1,000 virtual candles lit and prayers offered in remembrance of Love, said Carrie Altulvilla, public relations associate for Thinkbig Media in Aliso Viejo, Calif.
The Web site, which is located at april-love. memory-of. com, was created by a friend of Love’s, Ryshelle McCadney. They spent the summer together in Washington, D. C., when Love interned on Capitol Hill.
McCadney said she created the site because she could not travel to Arkansas for Love’s funeral. She asked for the help of the university in spreading word of the tribute. A link to the Web site was posted on the UA Web site, and from there it has grown
quickly with visitors across the country, Altulvilla said. "April and I were good friends this summer in D. C.," McCadney said. "She was truly an inspiring and kind young woman. She will forever be etched in my heart and in the hearts of the many people with which she came into contact." Over the past two weeks, friends, family members and students have been able to add their own photos, videos, recollections and prayers to the Web site, she said. McCadney said she would like to initiate a memorial service for April in December on Capitol Hill so that her friends in Washington can pay their respects Dr. Thomas Franz, chairman of the Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology at the University of Buffalo in New York, works with Memory-of. com. He said Web sites such as the one that is set for Love can be an outlet for a community, especially following the loss of a young person, to come together and express their grief. "The shock of all that has been lost soon gives way to a loneliness and the feeling that no one really knows what you are going through," said Franz, who has written several books on the grieving process. "The ability to communicate and share with people who understand what you are feeling does more than anything else to facilitate the long healing process and reduce the debilitating isolation. ".
McCadney said she stumbled onto the site while doing a Google search.
She said corresponding with people through the site has kept her from descending into" serious depression. "
" It is awful that her life was taken away so soon and in such an awful manner, "McCadney said.
" I tried to avoid mentioning the circumstances of her death directly because I really wanted the site to be the celebration of her life. "