News

A long lineup of mourners snaked through the parking lot of Belleville's John. R. Bush funeral home Friday, as this Eastern Ontario city formally said goodbye to the final victim in a wave of attacks on young women.

The visitation for 27-year-old Jessica Lloyd, whose body was found off a rural road on Monday shortly after her alleged killer, air force Colonel Russell Williams was arrested, drew hundreds of visitors, high school friends, and family members.

It was a tragic conclusion after hundreds of Belleville residents volunteered for sweeping search-and-rescue efforts over the 11 days she had been missing. She was last heard from on Jan. 28 at 10:30 p.m., when she sent a text message to a friend. Remnants of the city's unified efforts to find her alive still dot the city, which is just east of Canada's largest air force base in Trenton; Belleville's most popular night club, Little Texas, still has a billboard declaring “We love you Jessica!”

Childhood pictures of Ms. Lloyd, who had a striking dark skin tone and a big bright smile, played on a flat screen television in the funeral home. Dobie Gray's 1965 classic Drift Away played softly in the background, as mourners were invited to read a poem, I'm Still Here, which ends with the passage: “I'll never be beyond your reach/ I'm the warm moist sand when you're at the beach.”

In addition to Ms. Lloyd, Col. Williams has also been charged with the murder of Corporal Marie-France Comeau, an air force flight attendant who was found dead in her home in Brighton, Ont. in November. He also faces charges in relation to two home invasions near the lakeside cottage owned by him and his wife in the village of Tweed, just north of Belleville.

Ms. Lloyd's funeral is being held Saturday at 1 p.m.