FAYETTEVILLE — The trial may be over, but the healing continues. Wednesday, Kevin and Tilmon Golphin were sentenced to death for killing Trooper Ed Lowry and Deputy David Hathcock. Now, the North Carolina Highway Patrol and Cumberland County Sheriff's Department are working on permanent tributes for the two lawmen.

A makeshift memorial on Interstate 95 has been a wonderful tribute to the two lawmen. But it won't last forever. The families of the two slain officers have come out to mow the lawn and have kept up the site. However, the colleagues of Lowry and Hathcock want to make sure they are never forgotten.

Once a year, Cumberland County's fallen lawmen are honored in a peace-memorial officer's day ceremony. The sheriff's department wants to honor law officers killed in the line of duty year-round. The department is in the initial planning stages of developing a permanent memorial to be placed at the Cumberland County law enforcement complex.

"It's to recognize the fallen officers who gave the ultimate sacrifice, protecting this county and the residents of the county, and upholding the law," said Sgt. Stephen McLamb.

Flowers and other things serve as a temporary memorial at the place Lowry and Hathcock were killed. The NC Highway Patrol is working to have a portion of Fayetteville's highway named after the two lawmen.

"I just think it would be something to let everyone in the state always have a memory of those two men that gave their life for the citizens of North Carolina," Captain Bill Apple explained.

Both plans have to be approved by the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, and the plan for highway to be renamed has to be approved by the NC Board of Transportation.

Fundraising for the memorial at the law enforcement complex has not begun. This is the very beginning stage of a project that is likely to have an everlasting effect if it's all approved.