Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Associated Press
GAHANNA
Mourners carried sunflowers and baseballs as they left a visitation service Tuesday for a mother and son who were stabbed to death and dismembered in central Ohio, and a family friend who died with them was remembered as full of life and always smiling.
Friends of Tina Herr-mann and her 11-year-old son, Kody Maynard, said there were two closed coffins and mounds of flowers at the service at a church in Gahanna, about 40 miles southwest of their home in Howard, where they were killed Nov. 10. The baseballs bore Kody’s name and dates of birth and death.
A co-worker of Herr- mann’s said that among those in the reception line was Herrmann’s 13-year-old daughter, Sarah Maynard, who was reported missing the day of the killings along with her mother, brother and family friend Stephanie Sprang. The girl was found bound and gagged in the basement of a home in Mount Vernon, about 10 miles from the site of the stabbings, four days before the remains of the others were discovered hidden in a hollow tree.
“She was being very, very strong,” said Teresa Partlow, 32, of Walhonding. “I couldn’t imagine being that strong.”
Outside a crowded funeral home in Mount Vernon, cars were parked on both sides of the street for a couple of blocks as evening visitation for Sprang began.
Mourners looked at photo and video montages of Sprang, 41, as a girl with a baton, in high school with friends, in her wedding dress, serving birthday cake to one of her children, singing karaoke with her father and laughing as she was buried in sand on a beach.
Sprang collected miniature lighthouses as a hobby, and a memorial card and the slideshow both featured images of her with a lighthouse.
Among the mourners earlier in the day was Sheriff David Barber, whose office handled the search for the missing.
Another mourner, Randall Alicie, who saw Sprang three or four times a month at the karaoke concerts he puts on in bars and clubs in Knox County, said she was fond of rock and party songs and often sang “Summer Nights” as a duet with her father.
“She was always smiling. Always having a good time. Never seen her down,” said Alicie. “She was a character, a real character. Full of life. Enjoyed living.”
Dee Hall said she wanted to pay her respects for the victims, the youngest of whom attended school with her grandson.
“It’s part of the healing process for this community,” she said. “We don’t experience stuff like this every day here. I’d like to believe that something this horrific has brought this community closer together.”
Subtle signs of the community’s reaction to the slayings dot the small city.
“Our Prayers Are With The Families,” read a sign at a Hardee’s restaurant up the street from the funeral home. A sign at a nearby Dairy Queen where Sprang worked listed the names of Sarah and Sprang’s children and said “We love you.”
The search for the four began after authorities said an unusual amount of blood was found Nov. 11 in the home of the 32-year-old Herrmann, where Sprang had been visiting.
Officials said Sarah Maynard was found three days later in the home of Matthew Hoffman and that he later gave information that led investigators to the remains of the others in a wildlife preserve. Hoffman, a 30-year-old unemployed tree-cutter, has been charged with one count of kidnapping and is being held in the Knox County jail on $1 million bond.