Bonnie Dowd of Madison, Wis., kneels at the Negaunee Township memorial she maintains for her friend Erin Taylor, whose body was found at site 20 years ago. Dowd said Taylor’s murderer still is being sought. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

NEGAUNEE — A secluded, wooded spot in Negaunee Township has a freshly painted cross and new decorations, but it also has a tragic background.

Bonnie Dowd of Madison, Wisconsin, on Thursday made her annual tourney to the spot where the body of her friend Erin Taylor was found. It also is the spot where she maintains a memorial to Taylor.

Taylor was strangled to death at age 24 in her Wright Street home in Marquette on or after Aug. 11, 2000. Her body, with a ligature still in place around her neck, was discovered by a Marquette County Sheriff’s Office deputy while he was investigating off-road vehicle complaints 100 yards north of Marquette County Road 492, about a mile and a half east of M-35, on Aug. 20 of that year.

She called Taylor, who worked as a temporary secretary at the Upper Peninsula Medical Center in Marquette, “a really nice person.”

“She’d give you anything you needed,” Dowd said.

No arrest has been made as of this year, which marks the 20th anniversary of Taylor’s murder.

“It’s just for justice for her,” Dowd said of the reason behind her annual journey. “I want her to be able to rest in peace.”

There is hope for justice as Dowd said leads come in every year.

Anyone with tips on the Taylor murder should email JusticeForErinTaylor@gmail.com.

For Dowd, justice would be more than welcome, but forgiveness could be slow in coming.

“It would mean everything to me,” Dowd said. “I’ve thought about it and thought about it and thought about it, and I could probably forgive her murderer. I’m getting there, but I can’t right now. Not without justice, I can’t.

“She’s gone, and they’re walking around free and she’s not. She was taken at 24 years, and all she wanted was to be a quarter of a century.”

In the meantime, Dowd keeps up Taylor’s memorial site, which is not visible off County Road 492, although a cross in her memory can be seen along the road.

“We try to bring something new every year,” she said.

Information on the case is available on the Michigan Backcountry Search & Rescue website at www.mibsar.com/Cases/Taylor/Taylor.html.