THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 25, 1995 TAG: 9502250221
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY THERESA HUMPHREY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: SEAFORD, DEL. LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Friends and relatives cried quietly Friday as they gathered in front of the three small white caskets to say good-bye to three young children whose lives ended on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
``Nancy, God has not abandoned you,'' pastor Donald Meyer told the children's mother, Nancy Mont. ``He will take you through this heartache . . . through Jesus Christ we will have the strength to continue to live.''
Nancy Mont's estranged husband, Douglas J. Mont, 35, shot the children in the head and then left them in a burning van in Kill Devil Hills about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. He killed himself when accosted by officers about 11 hours later, police said.
About 100 mourners attended the funeral at the Cranston Funeral Home in Seaford, including members of Catrina's Girl Scout troop.
James Gradeless, police chief of Kill Devils Hills, was among the mourners. He said previously the tragedy bothered him because ``some place, society has failed to prevent this kind of thing from happening.''
Mourners sent more than a dozen flower arrangements. One was in the shape of a rocking horse, blue flowers trimmed in pink. Another flower arrangement had a stuffed bunny with floppy ears.
More than 15 families on the Outer Banks had taken flowers to the scene of the slayings earler in the week.
Meyer told Nancy Mont that he couldn't begin to understand the grief she was feeling.
``I've got all I can do to keep from bursting into tears myself,'' he said. ``But along with all these other people who care, I can help you cry.''
Some mourners burst into tears at the end of the service when a soloist sang ``Jesus Loves Me.''
Mont had picked up the children from their mother's home just east of Seaford at 9 a.m. last Saturday. Nancy Mont called police after her husband failed to bring the children home.
The bodies were found in a burning van in an airport parking lot near the Wright Brothers Memorial.
The couple had separated in August. Mont moved to a boarding house in nearby Frankford, Del.
Friends said he was despondent over his wife's plans to move to Texas with their children, Catrina, 9, Daniel, 6, and Theresa, 4.
Nancy Mont said Family Court and child protective officials knew her estranged husband was a manic depressive before he killed the children during an unsupervised visit. ILLUSTRATION: Associated Press color photo
Nancy Mont, center is helped out of the funeral home by family
members and friends...
by CNB