After three years, Valley residents are working harder than ever to preserve the memorial of a newborn child found dead on SE North Bend Way in 2014. Consistent vandalism to the memorial site has citizens motivated to keep preserving the memory of the lost life.
Baby Kimball, named for the area where she was found in North Bend, near Kimball Creek Bridge, was found on Feb. 12, 2014, left on the side of the road in a blanket. The King County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation into the child’s death and who abandoned her, but were unable to find the parents.
Since then, Valley residents have created a small memorial at the site where the baby was found. In order to protect the memorial from the rain, snow and wind, a small wooden hut was built and placed at the site last May.
Since the hut was placed, the memorial site has been the victim of several acts of vandalism. Thrown over the side of the road into the forested area below multiple times, the hut has been dragged back out of the ravine and repaired by Valley residents. The small toys and gifts placed at the site have been thrown around the area as well.
Stephanie Adams, a volunteer who has helped retrieve the hut from the bank below and cleaned the toys, said that support for the memorial has only grown stronger.
“There were only four or five little animals, stuffed toys, when it started,” she said. “Now there are 14, a homemade doll, a wooden cross with a Bible verse. It just means something to have this little baby recognized, it doesn’t take a lot because the Snoqualmie Valley doesn’t forget stuff like that.”
Adams said that soon after the hut was placed, she noticed it was gone while driving by. She stopped to look around and found it had been tossed down the hillside. She also found a note, supposedly written by the perpetrator.
“It said something like, he passes this way to go to work every day and does not need to be reminded of death, there is enough death…,” she recalled. “We wondered, is he involved in it? Does he know someone involved?”
The county’s investigation has yet to lead to anyone connected with the infant.
Curtis Smith, owner of C&S Landscaping and one of the Valley residents who has helped in the retrieval and maintenance of the memorial site, said he and his crew have had to pick the memorial up from the embankment off the side of the road four or five times within the last year. On one occasion, he saw the wooden hut was missing less than a hour after he pulled it back up to the road.
“That means this person is driving around the Valley all the time,” he said. “The person that’s doing this is going to get caught.”
Smith keeps an eye on the various roadside memorials around the Valley. He expressed frustration that this memorial is being singled out.
“Somebody put that up and it’s a good thing, it’s not hurting anybody. Right down the road on the other side of the railroad tracks the football player at Mount Si High School died eight or nine years ago. His memorial hasn’t been bothered. Why is this one being tortured?” he said.
Both Smith and Adams intend to keep an eye on the memorial and hope that the vandalism will stop.
Smith still has a homemade cross he recovered from the site that he won’t return until he is sure it will be safe.
“Until this gets resolved I don’t want to put it back,” he said. “We don’t want to put it back up until it stays up all the time.”
Evan Pappas/Staff Photo Stuffed animals and a homemade cross were placed by local residents to honor the memory of the infant found near Kimball Creek in 2014.
