The simple, dignified granite headstone is located at block 131, lot 23 of the Boundary Bay Cemetery in Tsawwassen.
It says “In Loving Memory of Of Justin Vasey” and bears the date of his birth, Jan 29, 1994, and death, Feb 25, 2008.
It was installed with the approval of Vasey’s grandfather in March, more than two years after the murdered Surrey teen was laid to rest in the South Delta cemetery, where the Ministry of Children and Families happened to have an available plot for a child in foster care.
Dozens of people contributed to the memorial marker, among them RCMP officers and support staff at IHIT, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team which helped obtain the conviction of four people in Vasey’s death.
A total of $1,923.50 was raised after a Leader story about the case disclosed the lack of headstone, about $1,100 of it from IHIT, the Surey-based forensic identification section and local detachment.
The rest was raised by staff at Delta city hall and 17 individuals who contacted the municipality after they read the story.
The black gravestone was provided at cost by the Surrey Monument Company, which charged $904.
The remaining funds will be used by the municipality to honour Justin Vasey in some way, possibly through a contribution to an appropriate charity or youth program.
There are also tentative plans to hold a recognition ceremony for the people who stepped forward to help.
The story about Vasey ("A lamb among wolves") was the first detailed account of how the 14-year-old met his death at the hands of three teenagers and one young adult in the backyard of an abandoned Surrey house.
Much of the information could not be reported at the time because three of the accused were protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Jordan George was 17. Jade Pollard was 16 and Danielle Wood-Sinclair was 15. George’s half-brother Cody Pelletier was 20.
But because all four were sentenced as adults after pleading guilty to manslaughter, the ban on publishing their names was only temporary.
The Leader report showed how an unhappy, socially awkward boy tried to be friends with a group of people who turned on him and killed him.
Surrey judge Paul Dohm said Justin was “developmentally delayed, had social skills deficit and poor judgment. He had difficulty making and keeping friends.”
After his parents split up, Justin lived with his grandmother in Scarborough, Ontario, then came out to B.C. with his father, who eventually placed him in foster care.
Justin’s foster mom filed a victim impact statement describing how Justin’s confidence seemed to be improving in the months before his death.
He was not an outstanding student, but he made an effort and was a dutiful, eager-to-please kid who followed house rules and obeyed curfews.
About a month before he died, all that changed.
He seemed to suddenly spiral into despair, developing an attitude that nothing mattered.
Justin started staying out late and his grades plummeted.
He began hanging out with a group of older teens who included Jordan George, Jade Pollard and Danielle Wood-Sinclair.
None were students at his school.
All were far more damaged and dangerous than the younger, naive Justin.
“He was a lamb among wolves,” IHIT spokesman Cpl. Dale Carr said.
On the evening Justin Vasey died, he was hanging out with a group of young people at an abandoned, graffiti-covered single-storey house, drinking shoplifted vodka.
It appears Justin made some comment about his father punching First Nations people, trying to mimic the trash talk he heard the three teens and Cody Pelletier, all of them aboriginals, express to one another.
It led to a swarming attack.
All four kicked Justin, punching him, stomping on him and hitting him with a brick, a pylon and a metal stereo left in the abandoned house as he begged them to stop.
Then Cody passed out from the vodka and the violence escalated.
Two other teens were present but did not take part in the attack.
One, a boy identified in court as J.J. was carrying a knife. Jordan took J.J’s knife and used it to stab Justin. Then Danielle and Jade took the same knife.
They talked about the location of organs as they wielded the blade, including the location of the “big artery.”
Justin was stabbed eight times, four of which were life-threatening, once with enough force to break a rib.
His nose was broken, there were eight blunt force injuries to his head and multiple abrasions and bruises.
This year, some of the people convicted of killing Justin Vasey will be eligible to apply for supervised release from prison.
