ESSEX, Md. — In Essex Tuesday night, family and neighbors paid their respects to a man who was stabbed to death there last week.
63-year-old Keith Yeager left behind one daughter, Amii Vincent.
"I talked to him every day, multiple times a day," Vincent told WMAR, "and he was really never in a bad mood. He always found something to smile about, be happy about."
Vincent said she'd just texted her father last Monday; days later, Vincent and dozens more joined together in Essex, candles out and memories shared of her father.
Not far away from the site of the Tuesday vigil, on the night of October 16, police in Baltimore County responded near the Eastern Boulevard Bridge - an area to which they say they don't frequently get called.
They found a man stabbed several times. It was Yeager - he died in the hospital.
Last Friday, a 55-year-old man named Gregory Hare surrendered to police. Hare is facing a charge of first-degree murder and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for November 17th.
Yeager, as WMAR learned, had fallen on hard times. He had experienced homelessness and was a frequent visitor at the community care center for local men's shelter Churches for Streets of Hope, who helped organize the Tuesday vigil with the family.
"Keith had visited us on that day," described director of operations Otis Trawally, "he was at our dinner around about 6, 6:30. Sat down, talked to me for a few minutes. And then hearing what had happened 10 o'clock, we just immediately jumped to creating that awareness."
And on that note, the show of support from this community struck a chord with those Yeager leaves behind, including his daughter.
"Everybody has had nothing but nice things to say about him," Vincent continued. "He was just Mr. Popular in the neighborhood. So, it really does warm my heart that everybody has such nice things and nice memories of him."
