It’s been one year since Reed Anderson Rigsby was found shot to death in an Airbnb in Birmingham, and his family says they still don’t know who killed him, or why.

The 23-year-old Rigsby was found slain about 2:40 p.m. Friday, July 22, 2022, inside the Airbnb in the 4500 block of Sixth Avenue South.

The pain and questions still linger.

“It’s been really hard,’’ said his mother, Laurie Rigsby. “As a parent, you feel like you’re supposed to do whatever you can to protect them and trying to figure out any clues of why.”

Rigsby was raised on his family’s farm in Heflin.

His mom said he was sweet, with a side of stubborn.

“He didn’t meet a stranger,’’ Laurie Rigsby said. “He loved meeting people and loved his friends and family.”

“He was just easy,’’ she said.

Rigsby had attended Auburn University for a while but was not a current student at the time of his death. He was working for his family’s packaging company while he was trying to decide his path forward.

He was living with his best friend in Munford.

“He was in that stage of trying to figure out what he wanted to do,’’ his mother said.

Laurie Rigsby said she doesn’t know why her son was at the Birmingham Airbnb, but he was supposed to leave the following day on a trip with his father.

Birmingham police said the family has mentioned Rigsby’s distinct Egyptian cartouche necklace, which spells his father’s name “Randall” in hieroglyphs, was possibly stolen that day.

Laurie Rigsby said the past year as been tough.

“I’ve still been going through all the firsts and its hard,’’ she said. “You just want your child back but you know that can’t happen so you try to be strong for your family and your other children, but it still just hurts.”

She said she’s not giving up on getting answers, or justice.

“Some days I have a moment of, ‘it’s not in my control, it will be the right time when it’s supposed to come,’’’ she said. “Maybe we need more time to heal and we’ll be able to handle it better when we find out.”

“But for me, in the back of my mind, the person who has done this is just walking around like, ‘I’ll never be caught,’’’ she said. “And I wouldn’t want this person to do this again to someone and that’s why you want them caught.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.