ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 29, 1996 TAG: 9608290030
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE
SOURCE: Associated Press
The stabbing death of a teen-age girl during a slumber party by a rampaging intruder drew family, neighbors and even some strangers together to mourn.
Forlinda ``Michelle'' Harper died Friday, five days after her 17th birthday, and three other teens were stabbed. A former high school classmate, Curtis Lee White II, was charged with capital murder, rape and other crimes.
``An incident like this brings people together,'' said Henry Muhammad, one of many residents of the Camelot subdivision who packed a small, sweltering red-brick church set amid cornfields Tuesday. ``We share each other's pain.''
Muhammad said the attack stunned their middle-class neighborhood in Chesapeake, a sprawling city of 180,000 near the Virginia coast best known as home to the Christian Coalition.
``Michelle had plans to go on to school, to college, and now her life is gone,'' said Martha Powell, a cousin from Camden, N.C.
Julius Downing, a classmate of Michelle's at Deep Creek High School, smiled as he recalled playfully teasing her and making her laugh.
``She had a lot of friends. She was very quiet, but she was always smiling,'' said Downing, 19. ``This was such a shock.''
The stabbing also touched people who hadn't known Michelle. Several mourners who never met her said they came to the funeral to show respect for her relatives.
``This has been pretty rough on the family,'' said DeLillian Jones, who attended high school with Michelle's mother, Betty Harper, in Chesapeake.
Reporters were barred from the funeral at the family's request.
Derwood Greene of Pretlow & Sons Funeral Home, which handled the arrangements, estimated over 400 people attended the funeral. Many had to stand; some stepped outdoors briefly to escape the stuffy heat of the church, and others waved paper fans to cool themselves.
Strains of gospel hymns, vigorous clapping and crying occasionally could be heard outside the church during the 2 1/2-hour service.
Michelle was buried in the church cemetery.
The owner of Consumer Casket Co. of Charlotte, N.C., moved by the tragedy, donated a coffin for Michelle. Jeffrey Hendricks said he didn't know the family but heard of the slaying through a mutual friend and wanted to help.
``It touched me,'' Hendricks said. ``It was such a senseless thing.''
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB