Neighbors give time and money to a family in crisis

In October several Lake Highlands and White Rock Lake communities joined in support of Lake Highlands couple Jim and Cheryl Hastings, whose eldest daughter Zoe, 18, was found murdered in the Dixon Branch neighborhood.

Ginger Greenberg, whose sister is Zoe Hastings’ aunt, estimated that 200-300 volunteers showed up at a Norbuck Park event, held a week after the homicide, to help Dallas police canvass the neighborhoods surrounding the crime scene.

Volunteers went door-to-door throughout the entire area surrounding the creek where Zoe Hastings’ body was discovered, and the Walgreens where police believe she was abducted, asking residents and homeowners for relevant information and homesurveillance footage. Greenberg said volunteers returned with a boxful of answered questionnaires that may have contained helpful leads for the five detectives working the Hastings case. Within a few days police arrested a suspect, Antonio Lamar Cochran, whose DNA matched that recovered at the crime scene. Witness testimony has been vital to the investigation, a police spokesperson said at the time. Oak Farms and Dean Foods offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. The company has been putting up reward money in unsolved murder cases since the 1970s. More than 1,000 people contributed about $66,700 to the Hastings family (as of publication date) through online fundraisers. Local business LH Creamery donated proceeds from their booth at the Merriman Park Elementary fall carnival to the Hastings family. Another White Rock area company, New Leaf Construction, donated proceeds from a November home tour to the Hastings family. Donations have helped Jim Hastings, a teacher at Merriman Park Elementary in Richardson ISD, and his wife, Cheryl, afford funeral expenses, time off work to spend with their other four children and a new family vehicle after the family minivan was involved in the murder. In a video released by the Hastingses, Jim spoke about Zoe leaving a note for their mailman, inquiring about his favorite snacks. She planned to leave a care package for him the following week. “She was just interested in people, and wanted to make them happy,” he said, adding that she died before having the opportunity to leave the mail carrier’s gift. One neighborhood resident left a gift for the Hastings’ mailman on Zoe Hastings’ behalf. The social media hashtag #livelikezoe was created to inspire similar acts of kindness.

—Christina Hughes Babb