Sam, the middle of five children, was the one who ran errands, walked to Sunday school with his baby brother, Jamari. He also was the one with the voracious appetite. ''Once he got into the kitchen, the food was gone,'' she chuckled.

Now Kancey struggles with having to cook less. ``I have a habit of cooking big meals. We don't need as much food now. Over the course of one day, everything changed.''

Kancey worries about the upcoming trial. Witnesses who initially stepped forward are backing off, prosecutors say, intimidated by a culture that discourages cooperation with law enforcement.

At a memorial service for the Polish American Club victims last month, prosecutor Gary Winston pleaded for witnesses to come forward. So did Kancey and Diane Walker Caine, mother of Michael Bradshaw Jr.

''It's up to us to make a difference as parents,'' Kancey said. ``My son was snatched from us, not just from me.''

ANTHONY'S CASE

TRIAL PROCESS IS HALTED,

AND HEALING IS FRUSTRATED

Arleen White wishes she had taken her son's case to trial. Anthony's father, Gavin ''Daniel'' Tong, believes the case wasn't pursued because of their race and lifestyle.

Tong ran a Rastafarian health-food store in North Miami. As a leader in the Rastafarian religion, he smokes marijuana as part of the culture. He has been arrested a handful of times on misdemeanor drug charges. In each case, charges were dropped or adjudication was withheld.

Prosecutors say they didn't go to trial because a lot of the evidence was compromised.

Brenda Mezick, the assistant state attorney in charge of the case, said only two tire prints at the scene matched a suspected getaway car. A key witness, who could place Hall and another suspect in the car, died. And the lead crime-scene investigator was demoted for improper handling of evidence.

Also, Mezick said, of the nine family members in the house that night, only White could describe the suspect, whom she described as a black man in his early 20s -- at least six years older than the suspect.

Prosecutors warned White that under the circumstances, it would be hard to get a jury to convict someone so young.

''There was evidence to plead the case. But . . . at end of day, would the jury bring back a guilty verdict with this evidence? I didn't believe they would,'' Mezick said.

Mezick said she understood the parents' anger. ''Some cases there's evidence, and some cases there's not,'' she said.

``As angry as they are, Arleen knows I was working my tail off trying to find evidence, trying to get investigators assigned, trying to see if the city of Miami could do more. I held on and I tried.''

And now, it is up to White to hold on, and to try.

On March 21, White, Tong and their six children, with Anthony's friends, visited Fred Hunter's Hollywood Memorial Gardens to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Anthony's death. Most wore a memorial T-shirt.

The younger children helped White arrange red roses and white carnations in a vase. The group spent several minutes sitting on the ground near the grave in silence.

Then they stood around Anthony's grave. Tong recited the 23rd Psalm and led a prayer, ``Heal our wounds. Heal our broken hearts and answer our prayer.''

When the time came to leave, White winced. ''The hard part is always leaving. It's like you're leaving him out here,'' she said. ``Memories can't be erased, but it's such an injustice. Everything was taken away so fast.

``It's been a long journey, a real long journey.''

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