Last of Conn. shooting victims laid to rest
Posted at: 12/22/2012 9:38 PM
| Updated at: 12/23/2012 9:40 AM
By: Maria Guerrero, KOB Eyewitness News 4
The final three young victims of the Connecticut school shooting were laid to rest today, and Emilie Parker was one of them.
The 6-year-old and her family lived in Rio Rancho last year before moving to Newtown, Connecticut.
Over the past week residents in Ogden, Utah have done their part in honoring Emilie Parker. Saturday was their final farewell.
"Everyone's been putting up ribbons. Just little signs of support," Valerie Young said while hanging pink ribbons on tree branches in Ogden.
Everything has to be covered in pink as Ogden's beloved daughter comes by.
"Anne wants to put up the whole bag so we'll see," said Young.
Young went to school with Emilie's dad, Robbie.
"Emilie's such a beautiful girl and I didn't get to know her but Annabel is six and as soon as she heard she said 'mommy, what can we do for Emilie? I bet we would've been friends we both like pink'," Young said.
As Emilie's family and friends held the funeral service down the road, Young and many others lined the streets of Ogden for the funeral procession.
Asked what it was like seeing the procession go by, Pamela Prince said it was very moving.
"It was hard. Because she's my oldest and she's only 7," said Prince pointing at her daughter Emily. "And so to think that I wouldn't have had her for a year is really hard. So we just wanted to make sure we were here to help them and let them know they were loved and supported."
Lynn Hoesel is a local teacher. She graduated high school with Emilie's grandparents.
"It touched me more than I thought it would," said an emotional Hoesel about the procession. "Just the whole - the whole thing is devastating. I'm a school teacher so it was real hard to watch on TV the first day but then to find out it was one of our own people was pretty hard."
As tears are shed for the beautiful girl with an angelic face, her family is thankful for the love and support felt not just from Utah but from New Mexico as well.
"It was a special place for her in her life," said Jill Cotter Garrett about her sister Alyssa, Emilie's mother's time in Rio Rancho. "And the people coming here it's just unbelievable that the support not only from the country but from the places Alyssa's family connected with that they would come and celebrate Emilie."
The Emilie Parker Fund is still open. It was first going to be used to cover some of the funeral costs, but after the amazing outpouring of support some of the funds will go to the other victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
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