Mom creates garden where son was shot, hoping people will remember him, maybe help solve his killing

Nicole D’Vignon, 48, stands beside a memorial garden she created for him in the alley where her son Nicolaus Cooper was found fatally shot in Chicago Heights, Ill. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

Nicole D’Vignon carefully brushes her hands against bright flowers of red and purple and gold in the garden she created where her son was shot dead in Chicago Heights.

The flowers are mostly artificial and are meant to “represent eternal paradise,” said D’Vignon, 48. “The plants, like the spirit or soul, never die.”