Apr
14
Written by:
chuck
4/14/2009 6:51 AM
It’s the last opportunity that many have to pay respects to the newly and dearly departed. Most expect that those in attendance care about the deceased, the family of the deceased or have a direct connection. What people - reasonable people - don’t expect is that there will be a funeral crasher. They especially don’t expect it in a sleeply little South Carolina town - the town of Gray Court. But little did anyone know that as the funeral was taking place, the spirit would hit Nicole Marie-Loretta Leonard from North Carolina to - well crash the somber service.
According to a report from WYFF.com:
A woman who says she had no connection to a funeral danced in front of the service, waved a wand over the casket, opened it and touched the deceased man and then threw the flowers from the casket at the family, deputies said.
Laurens County deputies responded to reports of a disturbance at the Church of God in Gray Court on Tuesday. Those attending the funeral said that the woman had joined the procession. They said once they were seated inside the church, the woman then danced in front of them near the casket. They said after she waved the wand over the casket and had touched the deceased man, she hit him in the head with the wand.The family said after the woman threw the flowers from the top of the casket at them, she drove off in a burgundy Toyota with North Carolina plates.
When that was aired on the news it stunned those who watched. What would motivate such behavior? Surely the reporter must have been mistaken or perhaps the deceased had a hidden side that would have caused such an outburst. No. Again according to the WYFF report:
Deputies pulled the vehicle over on Interstate 385. They asked the driver, 25-year-old Nicole Marie-Loretta Leonard, about the funeral, and they said she admitted to doing everything the witnesses in church said she did.
Deputies said Leonard told them she behaved the way she did because she “felt it was the right thing to do at the time.” She said she was driving through the area from North Carolina and did not know anyone at the church.
Responses from the funeral:
“Everybody was just kind of flabbergasted, they didn’t know what was going on.”
Tags: