Bubbly and free-spirited, Christine Ann Rambo had a special way with children. At family gatherings, she was the adult who would get down on the floor and roll around and play with the kids, and they loved her.
“She was a very fun person,” her sister-in-law Gretchen Rambo said. “The kids were attracted to her. She just had that spirit. She loved to play with them.”
Christine, whom her family called Chrissy, had two kids of her own, a son named Sean and a daughter, Sara. Tragically, in 2008, her daughter died at three months of sudden infant death syndrome, and after that she was never the same.
Christine had been living on the streets in Kensington, and a week before Christmas in 2016, she was attacked and fatally beaten in the 1800 block of East Clementine Street. Her murder remains unsolved.
“I want justice,” Gretchen said. “You want to look at that person in the eye and tell them what they did. They might have seen her like this, but she was an aunt. She was a sister. She was a mother. She was a daughter. And you maliciously and brutally took her away from us.”
Christine was born Jan. 3, 1976 in Philadelphia to Lynn Weiss and Joseph Rambo Sr. She was the oldest of three and had two younger siblings, Joseph Rambo III and Amy Moorish.
Even at a young age, Christine took on the role of caretaker for her siblings, and she tried her best to be there for her loved ones throughout her life. Gretchen, who is married to Christine’s brother, knew her sister-in-law would lend an ear whenever she needed it.
“She had a huge heart and whenever I needed her, she was there,” Gretchen said. “She would always listen. No matter what was going on in her life, she’d listen.”
Life wasn’t easy for Christine, but she was a fighter, Gretchen said. She recalled a Christmas in which Christine was struggling to get by, but she was determined to create a magical experience for their son.
“She had no money, she had nothing, but she still figured out a way to give her son a great Christmas,” she said. “Walking into the living room, it was covered in presents and there was nowhere to walk. She and her ex-husband spoiled that child.”
Just as Christine was there for Gretchen, she has become her advocate. She calls the detective in charge of Christine’s case on a regular basis, determined not to let anyone forget about her.
“I will never give up,” Gretchen said. “‘Til the day I die, I’ll never give up.”
Christine’s funeral was held on what would have been her 41st birthday, on Jan. 3, 2017. She is laid to rest at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Berlin, NJ, not far from her infant daughter, Sara.
Date: 2016-12-19
Location: 1800 E. Clementine St, Philadelphia, PA
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