Wilmington mother planning vigil for third anniversary of son’s death

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) —  Tomorrow marks three years since a 20-year-old was killed in Wilmington.

His mother, Jennifer Hatcher, is planning a vigil in his honor where his body was found near Greenfield Lake.

“I just want to keep his name out there until they find out who did this,” said Hatcher.

On December 27th, 2017, 20-year-old Dillon Morris’s body was found in a ravine along East Lake Shore Drive.

Morris had been shot to death, but three years later, the culprit still hasn’t been found.

“Knowing that they would pay for what they did to my son. No, it’s not going to bring him back but it’d be closure for me,” said Hatcher.

Hatcher has mourned the loss of her son for three years and recently, a new wound has opened up, after she lost her other child, her daughter, just three months ago.

“I’ve had a lot of support, especially from my kids’ best friends and my family, all my family’s from South Carolina, I have no family here, except for the few that was really close to my daughter and my son,” said Hatcher.

Hatcher still visits the tree where her son was found often.

She doesn’t want to leave Wilmington until she gets answers about what happened.

“We been here eleven years. This is where they grew up at to me, but I’m dying here, I don’t want to leave. Especially this tree, it’s special to me, right in front of it where he laid and died,” said Hatcher.

So she’s holding a vigil at the tree, so her son can be remembered.

“He was outgoing, he loved everybody. He was special, he was my baby,” said Hatcher.

The vigil is tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. along East Lake Shore Drive at the bridge between Lake Branch Drive and South 11th Street.

For more on other cases like Dillon’s, tune into Good Morning Carolina on Monday mornings for our Unsolved series or go to http://wwaytv3.com/unsolved.