BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Mary Love
|
COLERAIN TOWNSHIP -- The family and friends of Mary Jennifer Love, as well as people who never knew the 6-year-old girl whose disappearance sparked nine days of air and ground searches, will say goodbye to her Thursday and Friday.
Paying of last respects and a book signing will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday at the Donald & Stewart Funeral Home, 3939 Reading Road at Paddock Road in North Avondale.
Visitation will be from 8:30 a.m. Friday until 10 a.m. services at Mary's church, Immanuel Baptist, 2929 Springdale Road in Bevis. She will be buried in Spring Grove Cemetery.
There has been a community outpouring for the little girl whose family discovered her missing when she didn't come in for dinner June 24.
Relatives, neighbors and strangers formed search parties as police, rescue and canine units walked through miles of wooded areas looking for the child last seen playing near her family's Colerain Township apartment.
Police found her body in a wooded area about 7:30 p.m. Friday -- 3 miles from her home.
The funeral services, burial plot and flowers have been donated. Immanuel Baptist Church is setting up to accommodate 500 people, a spokeswoman said. Among the speakers will be Sheriff Simon Leis. A neighbor, Ralph L. Lynch, 48, remained in the Hamilton County Justice Center on Tuesday charged with aggravated murder. He is being held without bond after Judge Nadine Allen on Tuesday revoked the $100,000 cash bond she had set Saturday.
Judge Allen reviewed Mr. Lynch's bond status because Mary's relatives were unable to attend the initial bond hearing and she had received "reliable" information from a confidential source that Mr. Lynch has ties to organizations that have the ability to post the bond.
