JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Somer Thompson's mother spent Tuesday making plea to Florida lawmakers. Diena Thompson is fighting to keep funds from disappearing from the state's cyber crime unit.
Nearly a year and a half since her daughter disappeared in Orange Park and was found killed, Diena Thompson traveled to Tallahassee Tuesday to lobby against a budget cut for a program aimed at helping exploited kids.
Recommended Videos
Thompson told Channel 4 that she feels upbeat, knowing her passion to save the cyber crime unit could save a child's life and keep another mother from feeling the pain she wakes up with every day.
"I'm fired up," Thompson said. "You couldn't keep me away."
Thompson rallied against statewide budget cuts that will strip $1.4 million from cyber crime units that protect exploited children.
Video:
Thompson said she feels that cyber crime units are what put men like Jarred Harrell, the man accused of her daughter's killing, in jail where they belong.
"I understand budgets and that people don't want things added on, but if it was their child, they'd feel the same way I feel," Thompson said.
According to the Department of Justice research, there are at least 38,000 individual computers in Florida that either produce, use or transfer child pornography.
Thompson said if anything, the state should be adding funding to get predators off the streets.
"It's this kind of person that took my child, and it's this kind of person who needs to know that mamas like me will continue to fight -- and we are coming," Thompson said.