PIUTE COUNTY, Utah — A community in Piute county is mourning after a teenager was killed earlier this week.
“Light pink was her favorite color and so we’ve been wearing that a lot and seven was her number, so we just thought that it would be nice to put that on,” said Vallee Robb, a senior at Piute High School, talking about her friend, Jacky Nunez.
Nunez was shot and killed Sunday night by a 17-year-old suspect. Her community is grieving.
“She was very outgoing and smiley and very straightforward. she would tell you what she was thinking. she was so funny oh my gosh, and her outfits, amazing,” said Adryonna Henry, another senior at Piute high school and friend. She said this loss doesn’t make sense and is trying to cope with it.
“It just doesn’t feel real,” she said.
It’s been an emotional week for so many people who knew and loved Jacky - especially her family at Piute high school.
“It’s been heartbreaking. One of the hardest things we’ve had to go through,” said Shauna Bagley, the principal at Piute high school.
Honoring her memory with pink and green ribbons and messages across the school, wearing pink for her, and other schools and communities stepping up to raise thousands of dollars to help her family.
“It's been actually overwhelming,” said Bagley. “I just can't believe the love and the support of other schools that reached out to us to help. We have schools in the areas that are rivals, but when it comes to things like this, we’re all one big family.”
The Panguitch area donated shirts for players in sporting matches over the past three days with a special logo for Jacky on them. Schools sold shirts, stickers, and concessions, with proceeds to help the Nunez family.
Packing the gym at Thursday night’s wrestling duels, with players wearing shirts in her honor.
“I think it’s amazing. We’ve always had a really close community and everybody really knows each other, so to see everybody come together in one place is really awesome,” said Robb.
The students at the school hosted a vigil after the matches with emotional tributes to Jacky – with her smiling face in pictures and holding candles.
“I think it’s hard for her to be gone from all the sports she was in and how much people cared about her and everything that she did – I don’t think that anybody will ever forget about Jacky,” said Robb.
