Aimee Willard's family still honoring her legacy 30 years after her murder: "It feels like yesterday"

It's a labor of love. A roadside memorial is more like a garden of sunflowers — Aimee Willard's favorite flower.

Her mother, Gail Willard, carefully tends to this sacred space.

"You can find her no matter where you go," she said. "She is here right now. She's sitting on the new sunflowers that are sitting right there. She's here, she is all around me."

On Saturday, the Willard family invited CBS News Philadelphia to meet them at the memorial.

This family has not forgotten Aimee Willard after 30 years. They visit regularly, including major holidays and her birthday. She would have just turned 52 earlier this month.

"It feels like yesterday, but it's been 10,950 days," Gail Willard said. "When you lose a child, it's like a piece of you dies and it never comes back. It doesn't go away. You learn how to deal with it."

Aimee Ellen Willard, 22, was athletic with a vibrant smile. She was driving home from a bar when she was abducted. Her car was found with its engine still running along the Blue Route off-ramp to Route 1. Her lifeless body was later found in North Philadelphia. Arthur Bomar was tried and convicted of capital murder. He sits on Pennsylvania's death row, his appeals rejected.

"The night she went out, she had a sunflower shirt on. That was her favorite flower," Gail Willard said. "When you see one growing, you say, 'Oh, there's Aimee.' They're a beautiful flower. She was beautiful inside and out."

Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said Aimee Willard's name is remembered like it was yesterday. 

In a statement, Rouse wrote in part, "While her killer will never walk free again, there is never justice for an act like that, nothing that can fill such a void."

The Willard family has kept Aimee's memory alive over the last 30 years. 

Her sister, Nancy Willard, showed CBS News Philadelphia a new tattoo in her honor. The family was joined by members of the Pennsylvania State Police. Gail Willard is grateful her daughter is remembered by so many. 

"People stop me in the supermarket still and say, 'Are you Aimee's mother?' And that is a prayer for Aimee," Gail Willard said. "It doesn't make me sad because someone is remembering her. And remember, your legacy is in those who remember you."