PHOENIX — Time: it’s something Sandra Sweeney says she had far too little of with her 17-year-old son, Evan Clark.
“Happy. Sweet. Empathetic. Kind,” Sweeney said about her son. “I loved being his mom. It was the best joy of my life.”
Ever since Evan was found dead in a remote area of Mount Ord after Memorial Day weekend, she says time, has stood still.
“It gets worse,” Sweeney said. “The fact that you just said it's been a month, in my head, I don't... days have now just snowballed. I didn't realize it had been a month. The grief has gotten worse, not better. Worse”
Watch her story in the video player above
Evan, and his friend, 18-year-old Pandora Kjolsrud, were shot and killed on a camping trip. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the deaths as suspicious, but has not identified a suspect.
Sweeney says she had asked Evan not to go into the wilderness because she thought he was too young. Learning that she had lost her only child turned her world upside down.
“I just kept screaming alone in my car: ‘No, no, no,’” Sweeney said.
Now she battles daily not only with grief, but also with the lack of answers.
“There's fear,” Sweeney said. “There was someone out there that did something like this, and nobody knows who it was or where they are. That haunts me.”
It is why she is pleading for anyone who knows anything to come forward or share a tip.
“To lose your child the way I did, and not have any answers whatsoever. Where was he? What was he wearing? Was he in a sleeping bag?” Sweeney said. “I just hope and pray someone says something. I hope that someone realizes, you know, this could have been their child, this could be their brother.”
Evan’s many friends will say goodbye during his celebration of life service this Thursday in Scottsdale.
“To see those kids, how much they adored my son, it's just, it's wonderful,” Sweeney said.
Yet Sweeney says she will approach the service differently.
“I'm not saying goodbye,” Sweeney said. “I'll never say goodbye to him. Never.”
For her, a bond between mother and son persists, even beyond loss.
ABC15 previously heard from Evan's father, Bill, who said he will struggle to understand and come to terms with the 17-year-old’s death for the rest of his life.
Watch his story in the video player below
