A seat saved for Gabbi, 10 years later

Ten years after 7-year-old Gabbi Doolin was killed by a child predator, her mother stood before hundreds of students Friday in the high school auditorium where her daughter should have been sitting.

SCOTTSVILLE, Ky. (WNKY) – Ten years after 7-year-old Gabbi Doolin was killed by a child predator, her mother stood before hundreds of students Friday in the high school auditorium where her daughter should have been sitting and asked them to protect the light she believes every child carries.

The U.S. Secret Service chose Allen County–Scottsville High School to host its Operation Angel Summit, a daylong program aimed at preventing child exploitation. But for many in attendance, it became something deeper: a community reckoning with a decade-old wound that has never fully healed.

Inside the auditorium, an empty chair sat among students who would have been Gabbi’s classmates. An age-progressed photo beside it showed what Gabbi might have looked like at 17, a vision of a young woman the community will never meet.

“Maybe God needed somebody to push the pink sunset button,” said Rick Nord of the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office. “She loved butterflies… and she grew wings. We’ve reserved a seat for her in the crowd. She’s here with us in spirit.”

The summit brought together students in grades seven through 12, educators and child-safety experts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Safe Place and the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Project Safe Childhood. The Secret Service focused its presentations on online predators, warning signs and how young people can protect themselves in a rapidly changing digital world.

But the emotional center of the event arrived when Gabbi’s mother, Amy Graves, stepped to the microphone. Her speech, delivered on the anniversary of the day her daughter died, was a plea and a promise.

“I miss you each day, Gabbi… and that will never end,” Graves said, speaking through tears. 

Graves urged students to trust their instincts, listen to uncomfortable feelings and protect the brightness she believes each one carries.

“Just like Gabbi was a light… so are you,” she said. “Don’t let your light be extinguished.”

For many in Allen County, the 10th anniversary is a marker, both of loss and of the awareness gained from it. Judge-executive Dennis Harper reminded the crowd that Gabbi’s death transformed the community.

“Ten years ago, we lost part of our innocence in Allen County,” he said. “We pray for the family regularly.”

After her speech, Graves faced something she wasn’t prepared for: seeing Gabbi’s childhood friends, now nearly adults, walk toward her.

“It was painful… because your child would’ve been that grown up too,” she said. “But it was also a happy moment… to hug them today.”

As the summit ended, seniors were offered stuffed animals preserved from Gabbi’s memorial a decade ago, small, soft reminders of a little girl who should have walked the same halls they do now.

When the students left, Gabbi’s chair stayed in place. The auditorium grew quiet, but the message of the day lingered, that a community defined by tragedy has chosen, instead, to carry forward a child’s light.