WATCH ABOVE: Global’s Nancy Hixt has exclusive new details in the Jessica Newman homicide investigation.
CALGARY – She was loved and lost too soon, but now the family and friends of Jessica Newman have a place to remember her.
With flowers in hand, and pain in their hearts, they visited the site where her body was found nearly two months ago.
It’s the first time Newman’s aunt, Lynda Abell, was able to see the makeshift memorial in a ditch northeast of Calgary.
“It’s a place to go to remember. It’s a place whoever is responsible chose for us…we don’t have the choice,” Abell said Wednesday.
The 24-year-old mother of three was murdered, but that’s all her family and friends know about what happened after she was reported missing.
READ MORE: ‘Her boys have no mother’ – Jessica Newman’s mom waits for answers
“We live with it every day and I know she’s got three children, but there’s many families, a lot of people that care about her and they just need to know,” Abell told Global News, as she broke down in tears. “It’s hard to go on thinking we will never find out. What did she have to go through? Those questions always remain in your head.
“Did she suffer? Was she alone completely? Did she know it was going to happen?”
So far, no arrests have been made and no charges have been laid in the murder.
“I struggled with it because it’s where she was dumped. I have a hard time with that–how anybody can do that to anybody,” said Lisa Chiasson, Newman’s aunt.
Ryan Chamberlain, Newman’s best friend, said the quest is consuming him, and that he needs to know who killed her.
“The process of elimination definitely goes through your head,” said Chamberlain. “You think about ex-boyfriends, baby daddys, random friends she worked at a bar with, but it all kind of goes back to the same place in the end.”
Homicide Unit Staff Sgt. Doug Andrus confirmed investigators are making progress in the case.
“I can tell you, first of all, we do have a person of interest, and if we do make an arrest on this file, that individual will be given every opportunity to tell us about the circumstances leading up to her death,” said Andrus.
Global News has learned Newman’s ex-boyfriend, Kevin Rubletz, is considered a person of interest.
Rubletz is the father of her youngest son. Family confirmed the two were in the middle of a custody dispute and said Newman was hoping for shared custody.
Police have already searched the home he shared with her.
Despite numerous attempts, Global News has been unable to reach Rubletz for a comment.
“We are very confident that we will bring a resolution to this file, we will identify the person responsible, and we will be laying charges,” said Andrus.
Newman’s family just wants peace. For them, that will come when an arrest is made.
“I want justice served. The guy who did this is beyond low. You took a mother of three children away. You can’t get any more worse than that,” said Chamberlain.
“Turn yourself in–it’s the best way. Police are going to be investigating. It’s not going away,” said Chiasson.
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