The vicious murder of high school student Pamela Cameron in South Surrey opened up a wound in the community that 25 years later has not yet fully healed. On Oct 4, 1994 the 16-year-old was walking home from her new school of Semiahmoo Secondary, when a known sexual offender pushed her off the sidewalk into a wooded area where he sexually assaulted and beat Pamela to death.
Forever Garden
On Friday October 4, community members that included police officers, neighbours, friends, and REALTORS®, gathered at the ‘Forever Garden’ to show that they still remember, and still care. The ‘Forever Garden’ is a memorial that was created many years ago as a standing reminder of Pamela and other victims of violence. It is situated behind the South Surrey Arena.
FVREB Realtor Bonnie Moy has been a long-standing supporter of Pamela’s family and their campaign for justice. At the Forever Garden on Friday, under rainy skies, she shared a few words.
“This beautiful Forever Garden was created by a community effort and originally maintained by a wonderful group of volunteers. I want to remember the loving and wonderful people that formed the groups to help make our community safer with a focus on justice issues. I want to remember how this amazing community rallied around the Cameron family and supported them – the RCMP, community groups, friends, neighbours, Realtors, strangers, and the Peace Arch News.”
October 4 ‘a difficult time’
Pamela’s father is now deceased, but Bonnie read thoughts from Pamela’s mother Marilyn who now resides in Ontario.
“October 4th will always be a very difficult time of year for myself and our family. It hurts to look back on such a tragic and senseless death. Thank you to all for keeping the memory of Pamela alive. I am very thankful for the beautiful Forever Garden and all it stands for. Many generous and hard-working people made it a reality. It has inspired me, and I am sure many others, to believe in the goodness of humankind.”
The Cameron family’s fight for justice evolved into the Peace and Justice for Canadians group which after more than a decade, eventually dissolved. But what does continue is Realty Watch, the brainchild of Pamela’s father Paul Cameron who came up with the idea of recruiting Realtors to help find missing children, seniors, and vulnerable adults.
The launch of Realty Watch
Paul Cameron understood that Realtors working out in their communities and equipped with pagers for receiving immediate alerts, could be exceptionally helpful. Of course today Realtors are alerted with email and Touchbase messages through their smart phones.
When police request a fan-out for a missing person, an email message with a description of the missing person and where they were last seen is sent to all of our members, followed by a text alert that a Realty Watch fan-out has been issued and to check their inbox for details.
Now more than ever, programs like Realty Watch have an important role in communities. So far this year, 2019 is stacking up to be one of the busiest for Realty Watch with 49 fan-outs so far. In the past that number has averaged 15 to 20 per year.
“There was a woman whose 24-year-old daughter had just moved to the area that week [of Pamela’s murder], and they were so scared until they heard about Realty Watch and the fan-outs. They were grateful to the Realtors for that,” Bonnie said.