South MS family grieves Gracelynn’s death. ‘It doesn’t feel like reality.’
For those who knew and loved 6-year-old Gracelynn Vick, her death is hard to accept.
“I haven’t slept,” her brother, Robert Pittman said Monday. “It doesn’t feel like reality. I’m just trying to make the timeline make sense.”
A search began for Gracelynn in the area of F. Taylor and Saucier Fairley roads after her family reported her missing shortly after noon Sunday.
Harrison County Sheriff Matt Haley said about six hours passed before a search party found Gracelynn dead near the family home. An investigation is ongoing into her death.
The sheriff said he expects to find more answers about what happened to the Saucier Elementary School student after her autopsy is completed.
Haley also quashed the rumor on Monday morning that someone had been arrested in the child’s death.
“So far, no one has been arrested in the case, and it’s too early to determine if foul play is involved,” Haley said. “This is an ongoing investigation.”
Grieving the loss of a child
Gracelynn’s death has left her family in shock and mourning.
Her aunt, Jackie Polk, spoke on behalf of Gracelynn’s grief-stricken mother, Vickie Lynn (Wedgeworth) Hutcherson, on Monday.
She described her niece as a smart, loving, strong-willed little girl whose first love was spending time with her mother on the family farm named GraceLynn Heritage Farms in her honor.
“She was just a lovely girl,” Polk said. “She was smart, and she loved to be outside taking care of the animals.”
Gracelynn and her mother spent a lot of time taking care of their assortment of animals on the farm, including dogs, goats, chickens, turkeys and guineas, to name a few.
A child’s broken spirit after sibling deaths
But Gracelynn had also been struggling in the last few years.
Her spirits were still “broken,” her aunt said, over the March 2024 loss of her older sister, Victoria Hutcherson, 13, in a crash with a dump truck. At the time, Victoria was a passenger in a minivan that crashed into the truck while crossing U.S. 49.
In Victoria’s obituary, her family described her, in part, as someone who “relished being a sister to her siblings and was very protective of them.”
In addition to Victoria, Gracelynn lost another loved one to cancer about five months after her sister’s death.
Prior to that, Gracelynn’s brother, Larry Hart, 18, died of a medical condition in July 2021, his obituary said.
“It’s been a rough year for her,” Polk said.
Since Gracelynn’s death, her family has received an outpouring of support over social media and has also had to contend with rumors about an arrest that hasn’t happened.
In response, the sheriff said, “We just ask that you pray for the family and all who are involved.”
Sun Herald photographer Hannah Ruhoff contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 14, 2025 at 3:43 PM.
