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Behind a rocky stream and a thicket of gambel oak is a cross with all the meticulous adornments of a formal cemetery headstone. Fading daffodils have been removed and replaced with shiny new pinwheels. The old Valentine's Day decorations have been updated to Easter bunnies and eggs. A dripping collection of plush toy animals has been fluffed out after spring showers.

The people who tend Ethan Stacy's memorial in Wolf Creek Canyon never knew the boy they are remembering. Standing Wednesday at the woody site where the 4-year-old's mutilated body was found one year ago, Lucinda Martin says Ethan deserves that much care from the community that couldn't protect him while he was alive.

"The more people remember, the more they want to get involved and stop it from happening again," Martin says.

Martin is part of Ethan's Army, a group that coordinates child-abuse awareness events in Weber County and attends the court hearings of Ethan's mother and stepfather. Stephanie and Nathan Sloop are accused of abusing and killing Ethan, disfiguring his face to delay his identification and burying the child in the forest near Powder Mountain Ski Resort.

Investigators found Ethan's body on May 11, 2010. Just two weeks earlier, his mother had moved him to Layton from Florida after a court order finalizing her divorce from Ethan's father. Ethan had no other close family and no friends in Utah — one reason Jennifer Rhodes believes it's up to people like herself to honor his memory here.

"He was all alone," Rhodes says, crying. "There was nobody here to hold him and tell him it was going to be OK."

The seven people who hike up to the cross feel an intimate connection with this boy they never met. They tearfully imagine his thoughts and feelings during the four days he was allegedly beaten and burned. They admire his child-size glasses and baby-teeth smile — details they only know from photos. They have given him a nickname: "Bumblebee," after the Bumblebee Transformer toy. Ethan's father, Joe Stacy, told Martin it was his favorite, and she brought one to Ethan's cross for his birthday.

"We haven't missed a holiday with him," she says.

But the day is bigger than Ethan. While mourning his death, the group recalls other local child abuse victims. Four-year-old Vanessa Hart, whose father and his girlfriend are charged in her June 2010 beating death. Josue Contreras-Velasco, 9, who died after his sister and her boyfriend doused him in ice water at a Salt Lake City restaurant. The memories go all the way back to 5-year-old Nicolas McGuire, killed by his parents in 1990 and buried in his Roy backyard.

"This isn't just for Ethan or justice for him," says Mike Reiter, who is wearing a T-shirt with Ethan's photograph. "It's to keep the memory going for other kids, so we remember the impact [child abuse] has on everyone."

After raising money for Ethan's burial and Joe Stacy's travel expenses for the Sloops' trial, Ethan's Army donated school supplies to hospital pediatric wards and domestic violence shelters. Now the group is planning a May 21 walk against child abuse in Layton.

"We want the message to be for all child abuse victims," Martin says.

Back at the cross, thoughts return to Ethan. Before leaving, Martin kisses her fingers and touches the cross. "We love you, Ethan," she says, choking up.

Reiter double-checks the solar lamps placed around the memorial to brighten the spot where Ethan's body was left — "alone in the dark," Rhodes notes.

Mourner Anissa Martinez puts a bumblebee ornament next to the cross.

"This was a place where he was brought to be forgotten," Martinez says, "but now it's a place where he'll always be remembered."

Sheena McFarland contributed to this report. —

The court case

Nathan Sloop, 32, and Stephanie Sloop, 28, are each charged with aggravated murder.

Second District Judge Glen Dawson is weighing which records of communications between the Sloops and their therapists are protected by patient-physician privilege. The judge is also considering whether materials seized from Nathan Sloop's cell at the Davis County Jail might be admissible as evidence.

The Sloops are next scheduled to appear in court on May 16. —

Walk Your Voice

Ethan's Army is organizing a May 21 walk against child abuse. The 10.5-mile walk begins at 9 a.m. at the Layton Hills Mall and will end at the Davis County jail. Participants are asked to wear white and blue.