By admin 
PHOENIX — One year after pregnant teenager Zariah Dodd was shot and killed in Phoenix park, those who knew and loved her will be back Sunday, honoring Dodd’s life with a remembrance walk and calling for more protections for vulnerable teens.
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For Richilyn Fox, Dodd’s former foster mom, the pain of losing Zariah is raw.
“I did not birth her, but I loved her as I birthed her,” Fox said. “I’m left with like, feeling like I’m on a roller coaster that’s gonna fall. So it’s hard. I don’t wish this on anybody.”
The 16-year-old was 22 weeks pregnant. She spent most of her life in the child welfare system and was living in a group home when she was killed last July.
“It’s heavy, not just on me, but on the sisters that she left, the brother that she left,” Fox said. “I don’t know how you explain losing a child.”
Two men were charged in Dodd’s murder: Jurrell Davis, who investigators say fathered her unborn daughter, and Jechri James-Gillett.
Fox still has questions about the decisions made before Dodd was killed.
“Why that Zariah’s phone was not stripped from her, when they found out that she was in contact with a 36-year-old man?” Fox said. “Her location should have been moved from that group home, because he already knew where she was.”
This year, Arizona lawmakers passed 13 child welfare reforms after the deaths of three young girls with Department of Child Safety cases: Emily Pike, Rebekah Baptiste, and Zariah Dodd.
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“When the three girls were killed… it was just very clear that there were gaps in the system that allowed this to happen,” Sen. Carine Werner, R – District 4, said.
One new law, which Sen. Werner says is inspired by Dodd’s case, now requires children who report sexual abuse to receive a forensic interview within 72 hours.
“With Zariah Dodd, she was actually in waiting to have that AFIT done, and she was murdered prior to that happening,” Sen. Werner said.
As Fox prepares for the remembrance walk to honor Dodd on the anniversary of her death, she still replays some of the last text messages they shared.
“She said that she wished that she would have stayed that little innocent little child,” Fox said. “That was just something that really stung me. I still get emotional about it, because when you have a child that’s begging to come home and they can’t, you don’t have nothing to offer them, but encouragement.”
Sunday’s remembrance walk will be from 7 to 9 a.m. at Marivue Park, 5625 W. Osborn Road, Phoenix. It aims to bolster support for pregnant and parenting youth.
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