Emotional vigil held for teen mother and newborn baby shot to death in Fresno

Outside of the house where a teenage Fresno mom and her newborn baby were found dead just a few days ago, family and friends of 18-year-old Yanelly Solorio-Rivera gathered Tuesday evening for an emotional vigil.

Solorio-Rivera and her 3-week-old baby Celine Solorio-Rivera were shot and killed by an unknown person inside the home Saturday for reasons unknown and perhaps never to be comprehended.

The only thing Solorio-Rivera’s family and friends understood was that Yanelly and Celine were taken too soon from the world.

Perhaps in a bid to make sense of the senselessness, Pastor Jonathan Villalobos of Bethany Intercity Church told those assembled at the rural home in southwest Fresno that everyone’s life was in God’s hands.

“In Christ, there is no death,” Villalobos said amid an orchard that surrounds Solorio-Rivera’s home. “We just pass from this life to another life.”

During the vigil, candles were lit as a sign of remembrance and balloons were released toward the sky as the sun set.

The somber looks and teary eyes of those at the vigil seemed to merely scratch the surface of their pain and sorrow.

Who does that to a young mother?

Why take a newborn baby’s life?

They are questions many of Solorio-Rivera’s family and friends surely had to be asking themselves.

The violent crime not only has shaken those who knew Solorio-Rivera, but also many who never got the chance to meet the 18-year-old mom or her baby.

Both were shot in the upper body.

Even Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama took special note of the crime.

“When the victim is an innocent, 3-week-old infant, it becomes indescribably horrendous, and completely unacceptable,” Balderrama said in a news release Monday. “This senseless crime has not only deeply impacted the lives of a family but every single first responder on this horrific scene.”

Steve Popenle, whose daughter went to school with Solorio-Rivera, said the death of the young mom and daughter remained difficult to accept.

“She was just a beautiful human being,” Popenle said. “It’s just so tragic. I can’t even imagine.”

Villalobos, the pastor who tried to offer words of condolences and perhaps wisdom for the group of 75 people in attendance Tuesday, turned to Bible Scripture for context.

“Why do bad things happen to good people?” Villalobos said. “There was nobody better than Jesus. There was no one more innocent than him. And they murdered him.”

Added family spokesman Oscar Rodriguez on the family’s challenges: “It’s hard. You know, they’re here today. And tomorrow is another day they’ll have to deal with.”

This story was originally published September 27, 2022 at 9:59 PM.