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Touching Memorial Held For 3-Year-Old Tortured, Killed By Her Own Parents

OXNARD (CBSLA)  -- A touching memorial was held Saturday evening for 3-year-old Kimberly Chavez.

The little girl suffered unthinkable cruelty -- at the hands of her own parents. She was killed -- authorities believe -- sometime in June 2015. Officials with Ventura County Children and Family Services reported they had been trying to locate the child for more than a year and police began an investigation in 2016.

KCAL9's Jeff Nguyen attended the event in Oxnard -- organized by the girl's one-time foster parents.

Nguyen reported what a lot of people were feeling any time they looked at video of Kimberly. "Within a nano-second," he said, "you can't help but to fall in love with that infectious smile, those innocent eyes, and oh - that head of hair.

Unfortunately, this is a story about potentials never realized and it's especially hard for Karen Rogers, the girl's foster mom.

"Kimi was my only baby girl," Karen Rogers told the assembled mourners, "The last baby I'll get to mother. Pages could not hold what that experience was like for me."

Rogers and her husband, Kevin, took Kimberly in as foster child when she tested positive for methamphetamine and marijuana at birth.

The couple braced for behavioral issues but they say what they got was magic.

"She made each of us better people," says Kevin.

Karen and Kevin had to hand Kimi back to her biological parents, Mayra Chavez and Omar Lopez, after she lived -- and thrived -- in their home for about nine months -- with big brother Braden.

"I was so excited," Braden said during the memorial, "I never had a baby sister before."

But about two years after Kimi left the Rogers she was killed at the hands of her own mother--  because the little girl soiled her diaper.

Last December, Chavez was convicted of murder  after Lopez testified against her to get a lighter sentence.

During the trial, investigators said that Kimi was tortured -- daily.

"I never met Kimberly, but her loss broke my heart,," said Ventura County DA/Investigator Corina Wondoloski.

It's why the Rogers held a memorial for Kimi in Ventura County and invited the public - to learn her story and push for reform in the social services system.

"Blame probably begins and stops with her parents that did what they did. And, yet, the system didn't save her," says Kevin.

This past week, Kimi's biological grandmother was the third person convicted in her case.

The legal process has been a long one and the Rogers have waited nearly four-years after her death to say their goodbyes -- partially because Kimi's body was never found.

"She's our girl. There's no law that gets to say that it doesn't matter anymore," says Karen.

Even though Kimi didn't come into the world sharing their name, the Rogers are hoping her short life can help to redefine the meaning of family.

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