San Fernando Valley : Statue Dedicated in Memory of Slain Girl

Jenifer Nelson, 10, and Amy Kiel, 10, haven’t seen their friend Nicole Parker for two years, but they still have happy memories of playing tag and just hanging out with the pretty, vivacious girl.

Now Jenifer, Amy and all of Nicole’s classmates at Our Lady of Grace Catholic School in Encino will have something to inspire memories for years to come.

On Monday morning, at the adjacent church on Ventura Boulevard, family and friends gathered to remember 8-year-old Nicole, whose abduction and murder by 23-year-old Hooman Ashkan Panah rocked the San Fernando Valley in November, 1993. Priests and school administrators held a Catholic Mass in her honor, and in memory of 12-year-old Javier De Vivero another student at the school, who died in an auto accident in 1983.

Afterward, the priests dedicated a fountain to Nicole. Monday was the second anniversary of Nicole’s death.

The fountain is a four-foot-high bronze sculpture of a ponytailed girl holding aloft a conch shell, from which water spurts. Nicole’s parents chose the statue from among those available because of its marked resemblance to their daughter.

As Father Carl Markelz praised Nicole and blessed the fountain, young girls in the audience began to sob.

“It makes me remember her,” said Jenifer. “She was really nice and loving.”