Jessica Ridgeway Honored With Park, Memorial

WESTMINSTER, Colo. (CBS4)- A park in Westminster that served as a place to remember a young murder victim will be renamed to permanently honor Jessica Ridgeway.

Chelsea Park is located at 10765 Moore Street in Westminster. It served as a place where the community gathered to remember the 10-year-old in the days following her disappearance and the discovery of her body.

Jessica was supposed to meet her friends at the park and then walk to school the morning of Oct. 5. She never made it to the park.

Chelsea Park will be renamed Jessica Ridgeway Memorial Park. The current sign will be removed in the next week and replaced with a new sign.

The entire park will actually undergo a makeover to honor Jessica.

"I think people around here will never forget, but it does help with the healing," neighbor Maryanne Moore said.

The idea to rename the park came from the community and the City of Westminster in the desire to place something in the park as a permanent memorial to Jessica.

On Monday, Westminster City Council voted to remodel the park.

"It's just a small thing, you know, that we can try to do that helps remember her, and not just Jessica and the family, but the entire community," said Westminster Parks & Recreation spokesman Don Tripp.

The remodel was already in the works for 2014 but council members changed the focus of the remodel and moved up the completion date to next year.

The park will be catered to Jessica's memory and celebrating her life. The remodel includes some of her favorite things like a zip line, flowers and her favorite color, purple.

"She was a fun loving person who spent a lot of time there with her friends. Her friends will be invited back to help plant a garden in the park and use flowers that are probably purple. At the end of the day hopefully we'll have something that her family can appreciate and take solace in and the community can be proud of," Tripp said.

The City of Westminster hopes to have the new design for the park within the next couple of months. Construction is set to begin shortly after that.

To contact the City of Westminster Parks and Rec to donate money for the Jessica Ridgeway Memorial Park remodel, call (303) 658-2192.