Like it was yesterday, AJC photographer Renee Hannans Henry remembers going to the house of 12-year-old Bricola Coleman, whose vicious rape and murder in 1989 sent chills through the city because of its randomness and Bricola's innocence.

Hannans Henry's gripping photograph of the child's distraught mother, Della Belle Coleman, was haunting. So was her photograph of a funeral home worker carrying the frilly dress Bricola would be buried in.

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I've never been in favor of the news media covering the funerals of private citizens. It's an unnecessary intrusion, in my view. But Hannans Henry believes such coverage, handled respectfully, gives some measure of closure to families, friends and the community as a whole.

"I saw [Bricola's] mother a few years ago, and she was so happy we had given her child a face and not let her child just be a statistic. She felt good that someone cared enough to come over. She hugged me, and I thanked her," said Hannans Henry.

In recent days, the AJC has written extensively about the senseless and untimely deaths of five people, four of them children and young adults. The newspaper made the decision to cover the funerals of Lauren Burk, a Walton High School grad and Auburn freshman found shot near the campus; Eve Carson, a University of North Carolina student from Athens murdered near UNC; and Joy Deleston, a Gwinnett County sheriff's deputy who was murdered with her daughters, ages 11 and 4. Deleston's teenage son has been charged with his family's murders. The murders of Burk and Carson appear random.

Editors generally weigh a number of factors when determining whether to cover someone's funeral, chief among them the family's wishes.

"I think it depends on the news merits," said Bert Roughton, the AJC's managing editor for print. "But the bar should be very high. If we cannot argue that the funeral presents us the only opportunity to get legitimate news content, then we shouldn't cover [it]."

Covering the funerals of public figures, such as Coretta Scott King and the January funerals of Ricky Bryant Jr. and Eric Barker, two young police officers slain in DeKalb County, is a different matter, Roughton said. "Without question, we must cover funerals of public figures, as well as those of fallen military and police when there is public interest. Also without question, we should respect the wishes of the families."

Hannans Henry photographed King's funeral, and the funerals of the slain DeKalb officers, whom she had seen around the community.

When photographing funerals, "I try to stay away from the family," she said. "I usually try to use a long lens to be mindful of the situation, yet be intimate to show my care. I always let [families] know how sorry I am and give my condolences. And I always ask how they feel about me being present."

Sometimes the immediate family will give their consent, but other family members and friends are resentful and lash out at journalists, said AJC photographer Johnny Crawford.

The family of Lauren Burk asked the media not to cover her memorial service, so AJC staff interviewed and photographed people arriving at the church.

A photographer was not allowed into Burk's funeral service, but a reporter attended and wrote about it in a Page 1 story Monday, along with details of Eve Carson's service. While there is often great interest in such deaths, I don't believe it is necessary to report on funerals, which should be a time for family and friends.

But in recent years the AJC has covered a number of funerals, including the services of Dennis Roland, a Gwinnett coach who died earlier this year, and Philant Johnson, the best friend of rapper T.I., who was killed in 2006.

"I've never met a photographer who looked forward to getting an assignment to cover a funeral," said AJC photo editor Chris Stanfield.

"Some will argue that funerals are not news, stating that they are a private event for families to say goodbye to their loved ones.

"All funerals are meaningful, but not all are newsworthy. Nonetheless, our readers should know that when we do decide to cover a funeral, we do so with the family and our readers first in our minds," said Stanfield.

"We do our best to weigh the family's wishes for privacy and unobtrusiveness with our desire to provide the best coverage possible for our audience."