By Patricia Franklin
Staff Writer
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Todd Family
Picture of: Alicia Faith Todd
Growing up I have always found crime shows interesting. My curiosity would go beyond the show credits and solving the case. It isn’t uncommon for people to draw interest into serial killers, crime shows or morbid pictures. My sister and I loved “CSI Miami” and would always try to solve the crime before Horacio and his team. It was all fun and games until one of those violent crimes became my reality and my sister’s demise.
On June 24, 2015, my sister, Alicia Faith Todd, was found murdered in an alley. She was a victim of gun violence, a heinous crime. Due to the judicial standpoint of her case, I will not go into detail of what exactly happened to her. However, a young, vibrant, beautiful 21-year-old woman’s life was taken. She had the world in front of her, a family that loved her and a future.
According to a 2016 article “Let’s get real about gun violence and women” by Emily Imhoff, nearly 1,000 women are killed by an intimate partner – one third of all females are murder victims, two-thirds of the women are murdered by intimate partners were killed with guns, women in the U.S. are 11 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than in other developed nations.
Alicia was nothing short of amazing and always put back into the world what she craved most, and that was love. We were two years apart and literally each other’s world; because we were so close in age people thought that we were twins. Although, I had always been two inches taller than her until our teen years.
She was an honor roll student at her alma mater Millikan High School. She ran track there and was given the pet name “Noodle” by her track peers. As her eldest sister, she looked up to me and would always tell people who picked on her “wait until I tell my big sister Patti.”
After graduating from Millikan, Alicia attended college at Long Beach City College where she flourished. Despite working two jobs and going to school full-time Alicia managed to still have a social life. She loved her family, specifically her two siblings Jedidiah and Gloria who she fondly called “Didi” and “Mamas”.
A year before graduating with her associates and hopes of transferring to California State University, Long Beach she was murdered.
I was five months pregnant at the time of her death. I will never forget the phone call “Alicia’s dead”. The whole room spun out of control and I almost lost my balance, thank goodness I landed on the bed before hitting my pregnant belly.
It was the next day June 25, 2015, where I decided to take a stand to become my sister’s advocate. At her vigil in the alley where her lifeless body was found, friends and family came out to weep, speak and come together. I not once cried in public, like the many crime shows that I watched I knew that her killer could be amongst the crowd.
My life was changed forever, my parents lost a daughter, my siblings lost a sister, and my unborn daughter never got to meet her aunt. This was my time to come out of my shell and stand in my sister’s place. She gave me courage, strength and a voice I never thought I had. She left a legacy and I was kept alive to tell her story.
We were supposed to graduate together from LBCC in 2016. I networked and worked my tail off to ensure that Alicia received her diploma. It was a blessing to have her receive her Associates in Social Sciences with me, our little brother Josiah walked in her place.
The same year we graduated there was a mass 25-hour sit-in at the House of Representatives for a call to action against gun violence. That same sit-in was replicated in San Pedro. Josiah spoke on behalf of Alicia and our family. U.S. Representative Janice Hahn was there to hear the victims of violent crimes speak.
Alicia’s alleged killer has been behind bars for two years now. As her eldest sister and her “voice” I go to all her court dates, speak often to the DA and ensure that people know her story.
I honor my sister’s memories in many ways. I made sure she graduated from LBBC and received a college degree, I am a member of her scholarship committee through her alma mater Millikan and I humanize her through telling her story. My sister did not die in vain, let’s stop the gun violence.
