Posted on 05/04/2003 4:15:43 PM PDT by JustPiper
MODESTO, Calif. - About 3,000 people gathered at a church Sunday to remember Laci Peterson (news - web sites) on what would have been her 28th birthday, nearly three weeks after her body washed ashore along with the remains of her unborn son.
"So many questions and no answers. No real answers," Peterson's cousin Addie Hansberry, told those in attendance. "Today I come to you with a heavy heart because we know now Laci is never coming back."
A white heart-shaped bouquet of flowers rested near the altar, with a red line of petals down the middle depicting a broken heart.
Just an hour before the memorial at First Baptist Church of Modesto, hundreds stood in several lines surrounding the building waiting to enter, though a man told them through a loudspeaker that the church would not be big enough to accommodate everyone.
The church holds about 1,900 people in its main worship hall and 1,200 between two other rooms in which mourners can watch the service on closed-circuit television.
The young woman's friends and family were scheduled to speak, and the service was to include a video tribute to Laci Peterson, who was eight months pregnant when she was reported missing Christmas Eve.
Last month, people walking along the eastern shoreline of San Francisco Bay found her body near that of her unborn son that she and her husband had planned to name Conner.
The remains are still being held at the Contra Costa County coroner's office until tests determine the cause of death, said spokesman Jimmy Lee.
Scott Peterson (news - web sites), 30, Laci Peterson's husband and a suspect in the case, was arrested April 18 in San Diego and has pleaded innocent to two counts of murder. A bail hearing is set for May 6.
Scott Peterson's request to attend the memorial service was denied by the Stanislaus County Sheriff, said spokesman Kelly Huston.
Outside of the church, two young girls near the front of one line waited to honor Laci Peterson, who served as their substitute teacher.
"She was very easy to love," said Tiffany Collins, 14.
Danelle Herran, 24, of San Francisco helped pass out flyers when Peterson was still missing. She attended the memorial and wore several small pictures of Peterson pinned to her shirt.
"I thought it was important to be here and show respect and support for her family," Herran said.
At the Peterson house hours before the memorial service, streams of people toting small children approached the home leaving flowers and balloons. The street is blocked with yellow cones but people parked their cars and walked to the house where they posed for family photos in the front yard.
"It's been pretty chaotic around here," said neighbor Linda Caudle.
It was a far different scene than a month ago when media swarmed the house day and night, Caudle said. Now, it's just a steady flow of onlookers.
"We're ready for it all to quiet down and be our neighborhood again," Caudle said.
She called the passers-by "tourists" and "gawkers."
"I just can't see how any good can come from walking up and looking at the house. I just cannot understand the curiosity with a house," Caudle said. "This goes on morning, day and night. It's almost ghoulish."
You and me both. Your right about the suffering, it was so painfully obvious. But boy Laci had that smile from toddlerhood didn't she? She sure was loved, how many of us ever know that type of love and friendship?
I feel badly there was only one response to this memorial. Am I missing something?
On a side note, since this is going to be a very high profile case anyway, it will allow the supreme court (when it makes it there) to place a real definition on when is a baby a child (I believe at conception is the right answer). I abhore that so many babies have been killed in the name of womens rights!
Just my humble thoughts.
Well, thanx for this, now I understand my husband's comment, who was Laci, someone important?
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