LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Amiyha Miller just turned 16 -- and she spent her first Christmas without her mom, Amanda Miller.
She holds her mother close, wearing a necklace etched with Amanda's face.
"I can bring her anywhere with me still," she said, clutching it for comfort, worried about a job interview she had later in the day.
Pictures lined a poster board. Amiyha pointed one out; she's taking a selfie with her mom and siblings.
"I remember after I took that photo," the teenager said. "She had posted it on Facebook."
Valerie Garrett, Amiyha's grandmother, got her the gift for Christmas. It's just one way they preserve Amanda's memory as they seek justice.
"You can't put it into words the pain that we feel every day," Garrett said. "It doesn't get easier. It gets harder every day your feet hit the floor and you know she's not there, that she's not going to be there."
Amanda was shot in a CVS parking lot at the intersection of Preston and East Broadway. It happened on May 29, 2023 around 7:30 p.m.
Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) is still looking to make an arrest. Officers released a suspect in September, Maurice Byars, who's also known as Rayshawn.
Garrett said Byars and Amanda dated for three weeks, and she was ending their relationship.
"She left my house at 6:06 p.m.," Amanda's mother said, recalling the last time she saw her daughter.
Amanda left a Memorial Day cookout to go meet Byars. Later, she was shot, sent to the hospital, and died during surgery. Without an arrest, the still-grieving mother said it will happen again.
"There's gonna be another Amanda Miller's mother sitting here," Garrett said. "There's gonna be more children without a mom, that has to relocate their home. Their whole life. Everything, because one man couldn't take rejection."
LMPD needs help finding Byars.
"Just in homicide cases in general, people have to talk to us for us to solve these things," Tim Huber, the lead detective for the case, said. "That goes the same with apprehending individuals. We depend on the public heavily for information."
Although it came through tears, Garrett remembered Amanda as the picture-taker; the first-on-the-slip-and-slide.
"She was our everything. He took our life. He took our breath away from us. And she deserves justice," she said.
You can call 574-LMPD if you have information on Byars. The family is offering a $5000 dollar reward for any tips leading to an arrest.
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