Fundraising for memorial to murdered New Kensington girl completed

The memory of young Tiffany Miller will remain strong.

In just a week, enough money was raised to make sure New Kensington’s newest park will have a memorial to Tiffany, who was 5 when she was murdered 40 years ago.

“I was surprised it only took a week,” said Aaron Moore, a friend of the Miller family who spearheaded the memorial campaign. “I thought it would take us way longer than that.”

Tiffany went missing from her Peach Court home on Sept. 21, 1979. Eight days later, her body was found 5 miles away in the Allegheny River.

The case remains unsolved.

Moore launched a fundraising drive for a memorial to Tiffany at the city’s JFK Park, which the city is relocating and rebuilding.

The memorial will be a bench with a plaque at the park’s new location along Fourth Avenue. It’s being moved after the city sold its former location on the other side of City Hall on 11th Street to UniFirst.

Playground construction is expected to be finished in November.

The city provided space for a memorial, but the family and their friends had to pay for it.

Moore started with a $5,000 goal on GoFundMe, and then lowered it to $2,000 when he got a better idea of the memorial’s cost.

A total of $1,660 was collected through the fundraising site, and state Rep. Frank Dermody put it over the top with a $500 contribution.

Moore said he had worked on Dermody’s campaign and reached out to the representative.

The donation came from Dermody’s campaign, according to his spokesman, Bill Patton.

“He just did that to support what the community was doing,” Patton said. Dermody “wasn’t looking for any additional recognition. He thinks it’s a good cause, and he wanted to support it.”

Moore said the bench will be green and yellow to match the park’s new play equipment. He said he’ll talk with Tiffany’s family about what they’d like to have on the bronze plaque.

Moore said he’ll be taking the money to Keystone Ridge Designs in Butler County on Friday. The bench is expected to take 12 weeks to complete, and Moore is anticipating a dedication ceremony being held in the spring.

“I’m excited. I’m really looking forward to having this in place in the community,” he said. “One good thing about this is the community helped put this in, as opposed to the city doing it.

“Hopefully, that entices people to take care of it. It’s their money that made it happen.”