A Houston family is reeling after a memorial for 16-year-old Jadiel “Jay” Rodriguez disappeared from a southeast side park just hours after a candlelight vigil. The tribute, which featured flowers, candles and a custom-welded metal nameplate, had been set up to honor the Dobie High School student. When relatives returned to the spot the next morning, everything was gone, including the plate that friends had crafted to reflect Rodriguez’s plans to become a welder.
Relatives say neighbors described seeing a man in a white truck pull up, load the items and drive off. Park maintenance staff told the family their crews were not responsible for removing the memorial, according to Click2Houston. The family had gathered for a vigil at the site the night before, then discovered the tribute missing the following morning.
Family Pleads For Return Of Personal Nameplate
The welded nameplate has become the focus of the family’s public plea. Loved ones say Rodriguez had talked about attending trade school to learn welding, which made the handcrafted metal sign feel like a piece of his future as well as his memory. “How can you sleep at night knowing what you did? Give us the stuff back,” his uncle Victor Perdomo told Click2Houston as the family asked whoever took the items to quietly return them.
Shooting That Prompted The Tribute
Rodriguez, a Dobie High School student, was identified as the teen killed in a May 7 drive-by shooting in the Durham Park area that left one teenager dead and another wounded, according to ABC13. Investigators have not released information about a suspect and the case remains under investigation.
How To Help
Family members and investigators are urging anyone who saw the memorial being removed, or who has information about the shooting or the missing tribute, to speak up. The Houston Police Department asks that tips be reported to the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or to Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS, according to a Houston Police release.
Other Houston families have dealt with similar heartbreak when roadside or park memorials were vandalized or removed. ABC13 previously documented a damaged tribute in southwest Houston, a reminder of how fragile these public remembrances can be. For Rodriguez’s loved ones, the request is straightforward: they want back a welded plate and a few simple objects that, for them, carry the weight of a son’s memory.
