Xavior is very special to many of us and I check the news frequently to see if there have been any developments in his case. There are no new developments, but somehow I missed seeing the articles about a fundraiser to raise money for a headstone for his grave. It is heartwarming to see how much his community cares about him.
It's been more than a year and a half since officials found Xavior Harrelson's body northwest of Montezuma, now a community project to help bring closure is moving one step closer.
www.kcrg.com
July 3, 2023
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - Early last month a Mahaska County woman
Sherri Garrett started collecting cans to help pay for Xavior Harrelson’s headstone.
Now after weeks of collecting cans all across central Iowa she’s reached her goal and raised thousands of dollars along the way.
Even though she never met him Sherri Garrett raised around 25-hundred dollars from collecting cans.
What she’s raised, plus money raised by Xavior Harrelson’s grandmother, will get her to her $3,000 goal.
The money raised will be added to the initial $3,000 raised by the Harrelson’s to pay for the $6,000 headstone.
Sherri Garrett of Tri City Redemption “And like I said I don’t know Xavior and i could just tell that he’s a fine young man it’s too bad what happened to this boy and it just makes my heart feel good to know that I can do this for this child, for the community, and for the family.”
She says the headstone is expected to be in place by May.
Any funds that exceed the $3,000 needed for the headstone will be given to investigators to help solve the case of Harrelson’s death.
No arrests have been made, and no cause of death has been released in Harrelson’s death.
Anyone with information about Xavior can leave a tip at
Electronic Tip Form | FBI
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Xavior Harrelson, 10, was found dead four months after he went missing in 2021. Iowans have now raised nearly enough to buy him a proper headstone.
www.desmoinesregister.com
June 27, 2023
Iowans have donated nearly enough cans to fund a headstone for Xavior Harrelson
, a 10-year-old who was found dead months after he went missing in 2021 and whose father could not afford the grave marker.
On June 2, Sherri Garrett posted in a Facebook group called
Xavior Harrelson- Laying to rest our Bubbas, and said $3,000 was needed in order to place a headstone on his grave. Garrett owns and operates a can and bottle redemption center in Mahaska County, and pitched the idea of requesting can donations, with all the funds going to the cause.
Garrett first placed the trailer in Brooklyn on June 10. In just 16 days she has raised $2,400 — just a few hundred dollars short of her goal.
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He "loved everything and everyone," his obituary said. "... He was thoughtful and courteous, always willing to open a door for people. Xavior was very outgoing and talkative, always trying to make people laugh. He was a light and joy in a dark world and will be missed deeply by all those who knew him."
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"Everybody knows Xavior's story," said Jacob Rowley, owner of Junk Relief in Marshalltown, which donated two dumpsters in Marshall County for the cause. "His dad picked out a headstone, but that's $6,000 and they only had $3,000 so there was an additional $3,000 that needed to be raised, and I think we're getting pretty close."
Garrett said she has spent a lot of time in her car driving to various communities in Iowa to collect cans from people who wanted to donate. She's been to Newton, Montezuma, Brooklyn, Des Moines, Bloomfield and Ottumwa with her trailer to bring the cans back to her redemption center.
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