More than 250 people gathered Monday night to remember the 46 people who could not be there: Montgomery County’s homicide victims of 2012.

“We will be there for you,” county Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck Jr. said. “Your loved ones will never be forgotten.”

The 22nd Annual Homicide Victim Memorial Service was held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, on the corner of First and Perry streets, just north of the county courthouse. Mayor Gary Leitzell was there, as was county Common Pleas Presiding Judge Barbara P. Gorman, plus numerous assistant county prosecutors and law enforcement officials. But the majority of those in attendance were family members of the victims.

“So many people struggle with feelings of loss this time of year,” said Nita Steward, whose nephew, Isaac LaQuan Gibson, was killed in 2009. “I know it’s a struggle to cope with these tragedies during the holidays.”

After Steward’s statement, victims’ families were called up to place ornaments on a memorial tree.

Before the service, Heck said that the 46 victims represented a drop from 52 in 2011 and 75 in 2010, before adding “one is obviously too many.”

Dorothy Acoff, the mother of Deborah Nooks, was at her second service, three days after the Ohio 2nd District Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Nooks’ killer. Nooks died in 2009, 13 years after Ralph Donaldson beat her into a severely disabled state. The attack left Nooks blind, brain damaged and only able to communicate by blinking her eyes. Nooks remained in nursing homes for the rest of her life.

“She suffered during those 13 years,” Acoff said. “It’s a hard time. I miss her. Can’t bring her back.”

Acoff then looked around at the other people attending the service.

“My heart goes out to all of them,” she said.