My beautiful daughter, Cynthia Tammy Hernandez, was born in California on July 29, 1978 and murdered on June 11, 1999 at the age of 20. She will forever be in our hearts

My life has changed forever and will never be the same. I retired from my job because I couldn't function anymore. I went back to my job after 19 months on disability and lasted four more years because I needed to work. I still have my other daughter, Samantha, and a son, Phillip. It was so hard to continue working. I will never go through that type of pain as long as I live. When Cynthia died I don't even know how I have made it this long without her. She was my youngest, and she was my life.

The guy who murdered Cynthia was just someone she had met and was only going with him for such a short time. He received a sentence of 19 years to life; not enough for someone who destroyed my daughter’s life and mine.

Cynthia was murdered at 20 years old and would have been 21 just a month later. She was so excited to be turning 21 and was going to go to Las Vegas with friends. She never went but to heaven where God wanted her to be.

People were not very sensitive to someone who had lost a child unless they had gone through the same type of loss. People are not the way I thought they would be when someone’s child was murdered. I took my children to church when they were younger and taught them to be polite and caring to others. They were never rude to anyone. When Cynthia was murdered I thought why did I teach her to be so kind? Maybe that's what got her murdered.