Tragedy leads mother to ... A loving path

For more than a decade, Rose Stock has made a habit of talking to bricks.

Thousands of bricks and pavers now make up the walking paths meandering through her backyard garden that seems to never end. Stock doesn’t know the exact count, but she does know she laid 20 more just last week.

Each is a reminder of her daughter’s life, one taken prematurely July 6, 2004.

“For every brick I put down ... ‘I love you Jessie,’” Stock whispered while closing her eyes. “That’s what I did.”

Jessica Marie Stock was 25 years old when a construction worker found her body on the south side of State Road 64, just east of Interstate 75, less than a mile from her home on the west side of I-75. It was a few days after she had left for a weekend Fourth of July trip with friends.

Originally, the Florida Highway Patrol investigated the case as a hit-and-run. Autopsy findings revealed blunt trauma caused by something other than being hit by a vehicle. However, the case was never classified as a homicide.

The case file has grown cold at the Manatee County Sheriff’s office, but Stock remains hopeful her daughter’s mystery will be solved, especially once the Sheriff’s Office pushes out a segment of “Sheriff’s Patrol” that will run during the next week on Manatee Educational Television. The date and time of the show had not been determined as of press time Tuesday.

Once the video is ready, the agency also will promote it on its Facebook page.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Dave Bristow said the odds of solving a 12-year-old case aren’t great. As time passes, it becomes harder to make an arrest.

“That doesn’t stop us,” he said. “You’ve got to have hope. It may be we’re never able to charge anyone, but at the very least, we’d like to be able to tell the family, ‘This is what happened to your daughter.’”

Stock and the Sheriff’s Office hope the video and social media promotion will spur the public to come forward with new information.

“That’s really what we’re praying for,” Stock said. “I need to know where Jessie took her last breath. Who did this to her? And why did they do this to my daughter?

“Twelve years of not knowing. It’s hard.”

Stock finds solace by digging her hands into the soil.

The first year following the tragedy, her garden was a tiny patch. On the anniversary of Jessie’s death this year, Stock, family members and Jessie’s friends will gather to light a candle and release 12 butterflies. They place statues of frogs in the garden.

“She loved frogs, frog bracelets, frog everything,” Stock said as she managed a smile.

“I was doing it really for myself, for healing, grieving,” Stock said of gardening. “My mother was a gardener, and I remember how she had a beautiful garden.”

Every year since Jessica’s death, the garden expanded, until it now fills virtually every bit of Stock’s spacious backyard. Benches, statues of angels, frogs and other decor line pathways of mulch and stepping stones or brick pavers. Friends have continued to bring items to decorate the garden and Stock has added many items on her own, including a cemetery bench and specially made signs bearing Jessie’s name.

Every year, friends and family gather to remember Jessie and walk Stock’s garden of love. Stock hands out bookmarks decorated with Jessie’s picture.

Stock recalled how the Sheriff’s Office would update her and her late-husband, Russell, at least every two weeks for years. There were times when answers seemed so close she could touch them. And then, they would vanish.

“It seemed like they were getting close, and then big disappointments,” Stock said. “A lot of disappointments.”

Detectives continued to provide updates, but they lessened to once a month and then fewer over the years.

Stock knows detectives have worked the case tirelessly, but she doesn’t let them forget about Jessie. She aches for her daughter every day.

She hates the word “closure.” She wants peace, and realizes that the upcoming promotions may produce less of it. But, it’s worth the risk.

On July 6, she plans to gather with friends and family, as is her tradition.

“I’m thankful for the 25 years I had her,” Stock said. “She was not perfect, but she was a blessing in my life. Everything reminds me of her.”