More than 700 people gathered at a Union County church Thursday to remember Phylicia Barnes, the 16-year-old honor student whose body was pulled from a Maryland river nearly four months after she vanished while visiting a stepsister in Baltimore.

Speakers recalled an ordinary teen with an infectious smile who loved to shop, laugh with friends and play her music loud. She was a senior at Union Academy.

Some spoke of the hurt and dismay of losing a friend, a classmate, a sister, a daughter – a life cut short leaving unanswered questions.

“It seems like the epitome of injustice that she has been taken from us,” said classmate Kristin Bowman. “I cannot understand it, and I never will.”

“She was such a people person,” Bowman said.

Erica Albertson, another classmate, said: “These last four months have been so hard and terrifying. I had hope that she would come home.

Teacher Todd Ford called it “a loss beyond comprehension.”

By all accounts Phylicia was a student brimming with talent and potential. She worked with younger kids in an afterschool program. She would snatch food from her friend’s lunch plates while they were not looking. And she once explained to an inquiring teacher that she had bought a pair of shoes that hurt her feet because she “looked so good in them.”

Now and then

The Rev. Chris Justice, senior pastor of Lee Park Worship Ministries, where the memorial service was held, told Qcitymetro that Phylicia was not a member of his church. But from what he had heard, he said, she sometimes went to church with friends who belonged to various congregations.

In a brief message to those who gathered Thursday, Justice spoke of the “now” and “then,” drawing his message, in part, from 1 Corinthians 13:12 – “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face, Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

“We don’t understand everything we see now,” he told the audience. “We don’t understand everything that happens now.”

Phylicia, he said, has transitioned to the “then,” a place where she knows Jesus fully and is fully known – a place where there is no need for hope or faith, and only love abides.

A desperate search

Police in Maryland have released little information about Phylicia’s death. She disappeared Dec. 28, 2010 after leaving her stepsister’s house to grab a meal. Her body was found in the Susquehanna River, about 45 miles northeast of where she was last seen.

Marcus “Strider” Dent, who commands a Guardian Anglels chapter in the Baltimore area, said he and others searched for Phylicia daily, looking in woods, in trash cans, along the river.

“It’s one of those things that, no matter how hard you try, you get the feeling that you didn’t try hard enough,” he told Phylicia’s friends and family.

Then later, he told Qcitymetro: “This is probably the most painful thing I’ve done, searching for someone I didn’t know.”

At times, he said, Guardian Angels came from as far away as Philadelphia, Richmond and Washington, D.C., to join in the search.

All the while, at Union Academy, a private school in Monroe, Phylicia’s classmates and teachers began assembling a “chain of hope,” each link made of purple construction paper. Students and staff would stop by during the school day to write messages on the proliferating links, which reached 1,368 before Phylicia was found.

On Thursday, a school official presented the chain to Phylicia’s mother, Janice Sallis-Mustafa.

'An angel's child'

In her own tribute to her daughter, Janice Sallis-Mustafa said, “I always thought that she was an angel’s child.”

She told how her daughter, just seconds after birth, snatched the scissors from the doctor’s hand –and clutched them in her fist -- as he prepared to cut the umbilical cord.

“It was an honor for God to lend her to me and the community,” Sallis-Mustafa said.

As the memorial service ended, members of the group Mothers of Murdered Offspring passed out dozens of purple balloons. One by one they were released into a clear evening sky.

A Phylicia Barnes Memorial Fund has been set up at Fifth Third Bank to help cover funeral expenses.

Another fund has been established at the American Community Bank in Monroe. Donations may be mailed to:

The Phylicia Barnes Fund
American Community Bank
P.O. Box 5035
Monroe, NC, 28111
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Related story: A life that ended too soon
 

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