Family and friends gathered to remember a young life cut short.
Twenty-eight-year-old Julia Martin, a Detroit native, was killed in Chicago last week, after visiting her ex-fiance.
On Thursday more than 100 people gathered in Oak Park for a vigil for her in Shepard Park. Family and friends all trying to wrap their minds around this crime.
"Just to see this happen is just a tragedy, words can not express,” said Julia’s cousin, Tracey Martin.
Julia Martin had a full life ahead of her. She just started a new job at an architecture firm in Chicago.
"She started here in Detroit, she moved to Houston, she moved to Chicago, she was a go-getter,” said Julia’s aunt, Deni Singletary.
"She was at the point in her life where she was happy, everything was aligning for her, for something like to happen to dim her light so soon," said Singletary.
She had been engaged to a man, but told family she broke it off.
"She told me she broke off the engagement, she was still trying to work it out, I guess she decided to end the thing and he just couldn't accept it. I just don't understand it,” said Julia’s cousin, Darnell Martin.
Last Friday, she went by his home in Chicago.
Chicago Police say she was stabbed multiple times and he then jumped to his own death out of his apartment window.
She died at a nearby hospital.
According to reports in the Chicago Tribune, she was texting and trying to call her father as she was dying.
At the vigil, there were prayers, candles and a balloon release, more than one hundred people who loved her, sharing their grief together.
"If you met her, you could never forget her, she just had that kind of spirit, she was just a good person,” said Darnell Martin.
If you’d like to make a donation to Julia’s family, click here.
