WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Tenn.- A week after being stabbed
to death, a Bellevue family was laid to rest Monday morning.
There was standing room only inside the service for
Marylea Jordan, her daughter Michelle Pinkowski and grandson, Jonathan
Culpepper.
Friends and family of the three victims filled the
Williamson Funeral Home and many of those were teenage friends of 14-year-old
Jonathan Culpepper. Visitors said the service for three family members in one
day was overwhelming.
"It
was the most somber funeral I have ever been to it's an amazing funeral," said
one visitor.
There were not enough
family members to carry the three coffins of Jordan, her daughter and grandson
so Jonathan Culpepper's Boy Scout troop stepped in to help.
It's was a scene too difficult for many of his teenage
friends to comprehend.
"Because they are boys they
won't cry and they want to so badly. I am saying go ahead and cry let it out
cleanse your soul a little bit you might feel better you know they are tough,
they think they are tough anyway," said a visitor.
There have been many tears
over the past week for the Bellevue family. Metro Police said they were
brutally stabbed to death at the hands of their own neighbor, Craig Garber. He
has been charged with murder and remains in the hospital in police custody.
Police said he has self-inflicted stab wounds but is expected to be ok.
Friends said he took three lives and this community's
innocence, but did leave behind one survivor: Pinkowski's 9-year-old daughter
who managed to escape the violence that erupted in her home last Sunday
morning.
"She seemed in good spirits at the visitation
yesterday she has got friends and family that love her," said Jim Atwell.
"She hasn't realized yet
what's happening to her and you could tell it because we know the child and she
worshipped her grandmother," added family friend Avis Sublett.
It's hard for friends to
fathom why this tragedy happened, to understand how someone could be so
cruel. But is has showed them that their community can also be incredibly kind.
"I want to thank, as a friend of Marylea's, to
community of Bellevue for the outpouring and what they have done for this
wonderful family it makes you believe in human kind again ," said Atwell.
Part of what they are
referring to are the funds set up by churches, schools and friends to help
assist the 9-year-old survivor. To make a donation, go to
williamsonmemorial.com
Past Stories
