Honor Yvette Pena: Help Fund Her Final Resting Place

In November of 2011, my sister Yvette Pena was the victim of a tragic and horrific senseless torture and murder by a man who was a stranger to her as well as our family. His name is Jamie Osuna, and sadly, his name and face are far more well known by the general public than my sister Yvette’s. I was only 26 years old at the time of her death and I was tasked with the funeral arrangements and associated costs. At the time I could not afford more than a cremation and a very small reception at my house for close friends and family. We did not set up a GoFundMe for her service due to pride and not wanting to ask for help.

Well, here we are almost 13 years later and while it’s extremely difficult for me, I’m putting my pride aside and asking for the help of friends, family, and my community. I have been on a roller-coaster of a healing journey and I’m finally at a place in the grief process where it’s in my heart to do right by my sister after all these years and give her a proper and final resting place. May of 2025 is what would have been my sister's 50th Birthday and I have decided what better way to honor and celebrate her than bury her ashes and hold a celebration of life. At the time of her passing, everything happened so fast that numerous loved ones were unaware or unable to attend the small service I had for her. Now is the time for us to all get together and have that final moment where we can celebrate her and allow her to rest in peace.

Since my sister was murdered, her killer has received overwhelming media attention, with strangers even reaching out to him, offering him financial support for his latest pending murder case. In addition to him benefitting from taking my sister away from us in the most horrific way imaginable, there have been recent television programs that slandered my sister’s name and shared highly graphic and disturbing details about her death that should have never been made public. To say that this has all deepened our family’s trauma is an understatement. While again, it's hard for me to ask for financial help, I truly believe that Yvette deserves for the attention surrounding her murder to finally be used to honor her legacy. I am asking for the community’s help to make this happen through funding her burial and celebration of life. In addition to donations here, Payments can also be made directly to Hillcrest Memorial Park and Mortuary in Bakersfield, CA, using the name Yvette Pena and Contract #044941010240.

Thank you so much in advance for your love and support. And to anyone reading this who would like to learn more about Yvette, her life, and the impact her murder has had on her loved ones, you can listen to episode four, titled “She was my Protector,” of the podcast The Man with a Thousand Faces. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-man-with-a-thousand-faces/id1485027466?i=1000455346768