WILBRAHAM, Mass. (WHDH) — Family and friends of 24-year-old Amy Lord came together Tuesday morning to say a final goodbye.
“It’s every parent’s worst nightmare,” said Tony Fimognari, a family friend.
Lord's body was found at the Stony Brook Reservation in Hyde Park on July 23. Police said Lord was forced to withdraw money from five different ATMs in the Boston area before being stabbed to death. She was a graduate of Bentley University and had been working in Boston.
There was standing room only inside St. Cecilia’s Church Tuesday morning as about 800 people gathered to remember Lord in her hometown of Wilbraham.
“These are hard times. None of us know until it happens to us how hard this is. Especially the way she died,” said funeral director John Sampson.
White ribbons lined the neighborhood around the church.
“The community, as you can see from the ribbons, they’re just doing everything they think they can to help and they’re doing a great job,” said Sampson.
Lord’s friends and family members focused on helping her mother, father and two sisters any way they could.
“You just hug them. You hug them and you call them in another week or so to make sure they’re hanging in…that’s all you can do,” said one woman.
A private burial service for family followed the funeral.
Officials continue to investigate Lord’s death. Police arrested 28-year-old Edwin Alemany in connection with two other attacks on women in South Boston. Investigators said he is a person of interest in Lord’s death and they’re close to charging him with the crime, but so far, they’ve only linked him to a pair of assaults on two different women.
While the attacks are making some say South Boston isn’t as safe as they thought it was, Mayor Menino said it is, and he’s not shying away from his anger over a detective who could’ve picked up Alemany nearly a year ago.
“He did not do his job and the commissioner was right for demoting him,” said Menino.
The detective did not follow up on a report that Alemany attacked another woman in Roxbury last year. He has been demoted from detective and is now a patrolman.