KERNERSVILLE, N.C. — Like many families in the 90's, the Kennedys of Kernersville always had a camcorder around.
There were hours of home videos featuring sisters Jordan and Taylor. Their mom, Kathi, would make frequent cameos when she wasn't behind the viewfinder.
"She always took pictures,” remembered Kathi’s sister, Diane Woolard. “She took videos of everything that was going on in their life."
Just about every moment, smile and laugh, captured on tape before it all abruptly stopped.
October 17th, 1994.
A murder at a Kernersville apartment complex.
"It was the worst day of my life,” Diane said. “I got a call from my mom, I was at work, and she said, ‘You have to get up here, Kathi is dead.’"
Police said someone strangled and stabbed Kathi as her two young daughters slept in another room. Her daughter, Jordan, who was just four years old at the time, was the first to see her.
"I went to go find her so she could get me some more water and I saw her lying on the floor,” remembered Jordan Briggs, Kathi’s eldest daughter.
Even at that young age, Jordan said she remembers everything clearly, even when her grandma, who they call Memaw, showed up hours later.
"I just remember her sitting down on the couch and just weeping and crying,” Jordan said. “I was just standing there with her just watching her, knowing something bad was happening but not really knowing how to process it."
Kathi's husband, David, was on a friend's fishing trip at the beach when it happened. "I was totally awestruck, devastated at that time. It was a shocking moment."
The days that followed were filled with mixed emotions.
"It was awful, and it was uplifting because people just came and asked what they could do for us,” Diane said.
As police searched for the killer, the Kennedy family was forced to push on without their matriarch. Weeks, months, and years went by without any answers.
The Kennedy girls were growing up without their mother and it was starting to affect younger sister Taylor, who wasn't even a year old when it happened, so she has no memory of her mother.
"She would be sad about it a lot more even though she never met her,” Jordan said. “I remember there was one time when she was in elementary school that her teacher talked to my dad about it because she would just come to school crying every day holding a picture of her."
"I think I saw other people making the Mother’s Day gifts and things like that,” reflected Taylor Swaim, Kathi’s younger daughter. “Or having their moms come eat lunch with them so I think for me that's when it really started to feel like I was different and that was really, really hard."
As the girls entered their teenage years, they found out about the home videos, many of them featuring their late mom. In an instant, everything changed.
"Seeing us being cared for by a mother was an out-of-body experience,” Jordan said. “I did have one of those at one point and she did treat me like I've always dreamed of my mom treating me."
"I just bawled my eyes out because I never heard her say my name before,” Taylor said. “I didn't really know her voice, I didn't know the little nicknames she had for me so hearing all of that was really healing in a way, but again, so much sadness.”
Through these tapes, Jordan and Taylor had a treasure trove of small glimpses into their early lives. Videos showing mom playing with them, interacting with the camera and showing them affection.
It was solid proof they had a mother who loved and cared for them.
"I haven't been motherless all along,” Jordan said. “We did have that bond with her before it was taken from us, and we have videos that we can go back and enjoy that time."
"For once, I had my own memory and it wasn't like a real-time memory but still it existed and it was me and her,” Taylor added.
Over the years, Kathi's family learned to live with the possibility they might not ever find her killer.
"I know that's probably never going to be solved so I'm resolved to live with that,” David admitted.
As her daughters got older, their attitudes toward what happened also shifted.
"I started to let go of a lot of that anger and resentment that I had,” Taylor said. “I started to get closer to God and understand his heart and who he is."
"I know that God has righteous anger toward this person, and I don't have to carry that burden,” Jordan added. “I can live my life at peace knowing he will take care of it and not let it make me into this bitter, resentful person that cannot enjoy the life that I'm sure she always wanted me to have."
They've faced other challenges as the years passed. Like the day Taylor got engaged, a fire burned down the family home. One of the few things left untouched by the flames was a huge portrait of Kathi in her wedding dress.
"It was just a little bit of good in a lot of bad,” Taylor said.
“And the home videos survived,” Jordan added. “That was the other crucial piece that we were really worried about."
One of the few links to their past, spared by the fire.
Taylor and Jordan are both married now, with young kids of their own. They hope to one day share all the good stuff with them. There are small reminders of Kathi to spark that conversation, like a stone outside Taylor's front door.
"It'll just be another way for our kids to remember her and know that she's here,” Taylor said. “And an opportunity for us to see it and think about her, so it feels like she's close."
Starting to tell their kids about their grandmother has been healing, but it's also been difficult. Taylor recalled a recent conversation with her 4-year-old son.
"He said, 'What happened to her?' and I said, 'She's in heaven with Jesus, we don't have to worry about that, she's great, she's fine, she's happy.' And he said, 'But I love her, I haven't met her yet' and so that just broke my heart because, me neither buddy.”
Even through the grief, they're looking forward to sharing the type of person she was.
"I want to share her silly side, which is all of her videos, the country accent,” Taylor said with a smile. “Her and Diane and Memaw, the way they interacted together, they're so funny."
"I would say her sense of humor,” added David. “She loved to laugh, make jokes and crack people up."
"She was a very faithful friend to anybody,” reflected Diane. “Anybody needed help, she was willing to help them. She had a great personality, she had a great smile, she had a great laugh and a sense of humor."
"Sense of humor, her smile, how much she cared for us, it was very obvious her love for us in these videos that we have,” Jordan said.
Videos that will forever provide a glimpse into the past. A past that was stolen from this family but one they're determined to pass on to the next generation, no matter what.
The Kernersville police department wouldn't comment on the case since it's still open, but we spoke with a now-retired detective who used to be over the case.
She said investigators have DNA evidence, but to this point, it's not been enough to find a match. She's hopeful advances in technology can one day determine who it belongs to.