Dozens of people gathered on a field by the Bishop’s Beach pavilion in Old Town Homer on a windy Wednesday to remember Murnane. The day marked more than six and a half years since her disappearance.
For years, friends and neighbors sought answers about what happened through community-wide searches and investigations. Mark Marette, a longtime friend of Murnane’s, joined that initial search.
“I looked for the head of the bay where I was living at the time, started to talk to people, and you know, check cabins, and having to go into empty cabins, empty buildings to see what I could find. After the search had kind of slowed down, you would still be out in the woods, and you would be wondering about Duffy, and what happened to her,” Marette said.
That case reached its conclusion the same day as the vigil, when a judge sentenced Kirby Calderwood to 87 years in prison for her murder. Marette said despite the sentence, it's hard to move on.
“I guess we'll just be with the lovely memories I have of my friend, and that's all I can really, you know, think about when I think about Duffy, is what a beautiful person she is, and how much we will all miss her in our lives,” Marette said.
Family, friends and community members shared food and swapped stories as the evening went on. Homer Artist Mavis Muller hung a woven sculpture from a crossbeam strung between two stick tripods. She built it out of alder and called it the sphere of love.
"The material that I chose to use is alder, because I think of alder as a tree that grows in groves and the branches and the roots are entwined. One alder twig bends very easily, but when they all come together, it's really remarkably strong, as is our community," Muller said.
A sign fixed to the basket next to the sculpture read, “We love you Duffy,” and invited people to tuck spruce cones inside as seeds of love, healing, remembrance and hope. It asked visitors to tie a red string around the sphere in honor of stolen, missing and murdered people and their families. Muller plans to carry the sphere into the Homer Burning Basket event in September, where she said fire will release everything people placed inside.
Friends and family also spent the evening remembering stories from Murnane’s childhood, from a 4-H trip to Florida to afternoons spent making paper necklaces and dressing up in old clothes.
Marette said one person was missing from the gathering. Duffy’s mother, Sarah Burg, died of cancer in 2024. He said the community will keep showing up for both of them.
