SURREY (NEWS1130) – A year ago today, a 19-year-old model and SFU student was shot dead in a parking lot at the Surrey campus. Maple Batalia’s family is still waiting to find out who pulled the trigger.

Roseleen Batalia thinks about her little sister every day. “It wasn’t natural, so it’s very hard. We have so many questions.”

“You have no closure, in that sense. Knowing that the person is still out there that hurt her,” she adds.

Sergeant Jennifer Pound with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team tells us the past year hasn’t been easy on investigators and it’s been much harder on Maple’s family.

“Maple was a true victim. She was 19 years old. She was beautiful inside and out and she had her whole life ahead of her,” says Pound.

She won’t reveal any specifics about the case, but says they’re still looking for witnesses, hopefully, one who will give them a key piece of evidence they can use to solve the case. “We need people to come forward and give us that bit of information that’s going to push this even further ahead.”

“Anyone that may have been there… at SFU the night this incident happened, come forward,” she urges.

In the meantime, Roseleen is helping raise money in Maple’s memory for a health sciences bursary and to send someone to a dance school in Penticton. “I feel like she just deserves all of it. If [Maple] is not here, then why not give someone else that opportunity?”

More than $70,000 has been raised so far.

Maple was passionate about art and science; there’s a fundraiser at SFU this afternoon. There will also be a candlelight vigil this evening.