Joseline Rivera lifted her face to the sun. Richardi Galarza shielded his eyes behind dark glasses. The two grieving parents each tossed a snow white dove into a cloudless Canton sky Saturday, an act symbolizing their 7-year-old daughter’s flight to heaven.
Jorelys Rivera, according to police, was raped, beaten and stabbed to death a week ago. Now she is in “the arms of Jesus,” Pastor Salvidor Gonzelaz said to the roughly 200 mourners who attended Jorelys' funeral. She was killed in a vacant apartment in the River Ridge Apartments in Canton where she lived with her mother and two sisters.
“Right now she’s happy. She’s in a better place,” Gonzelaz said at a bi-lingual service.
Inside the Baptist church dozens of stuffed animals and an angel made of balloons were waiting for the small white coffin. It was covered with a spray of flowers in Jorelys’ favorite color pink and a small Puerto Rican flag. As it was wheeled to the front of the sanctuary, a pianist played "Jesus Loves Me."
The family, through an interpreter and the Spanish-speaking pastor, thanked the police agencies that looked for their daughter for three nights and two and a half days before finding her body in an industrial trash compactor.
There was a single reference to Jorelys' violent death during 1-hour service. There was no mention of Ryan Brunn, the 20-year-old man accused of killing her.
“Today we have much pain in our hearts. There is pain in our lives because of what happened to this little girl,” Gonzelaz said. “God will turn this evil into something good.”
Jorelys loved purses and Sponge Bob. She sang and danced and drew pictures, Gonzelaz said.
A friend, Emily, read a letter she had written to her playmate.
“I wish you were here and alive and I could play with you and have fun,” Emily read. “I love you so much and I’ll always remember you.”
As the service closed, Jorelys' parents lingered at the open casket. Rivera leaned over her daughter, touching her and kissing her.
"All Through the Night" and then "Goin’ Home" played as Jorelys’ casket was wheeled out.
Outside in a cold wind everyone gathered around the white baskets with the doves inside.
After Jorelys' parents tossed two doves in the air, more than a dozen followed. They gathered in flight, made two passes over the mourners and then flew away as a mother’s mournful sobs followed.
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