WESTMINSTER — Kelsey Shannon’s brother-in-law said he’s been asked 500 times what people can do for the family after Kelsey’s body was found a week ago.
“Kelsey had this wonderful ability to make your day,” Tim Horne told the crowd of 800 who gathered for the 13-year-old’s funeral Wednesday.
“What you can do is try to make somebody’s day. Be nice to someone, let them into the traffic lane, buy someone a cup of coffee. And do it in the memory of Kelsey.”
Kelsey disappeared Oct. 14 after walking out of her parents’ house, saying she would be home in time for dinner. Her body was found Jan. 21 in a stand of cattails in a drainage ditch less than a mile from her parents’ Broomfield home.
An 18-year-old Lakewood man who was friends with her was arrested on suspicion of murder the day after she was found.
“Very few of us have ever experienced our child walking out the door . . . and never returning,” said Chick Horne, Tim’s father. “Like Pandora’s box, after all the world’s evils have been released, all that remains is hope.”
Paul Jordan, senior pastor at the standing-room-only Family in Christ Community Church in Westminster, said Kelsey was “an irrepressible girl” who was quick to make friends, determined to do things her way and had a quick laugh, recalling her giggling while playing Simba with her family.
A shrine to Kelsey was assembled in the front of the church, filled with her stuffed animals, dolls and mementos. Among them were a number of certificates of accomplishment or completion, including one from a ballet school and one from a karate course.
A 15-minute video of family photographs showed the audience a close-knit family with lots of sitting on laps, cousins, pets, Halloween costumes and being buried to her neck on a sandy Cape Cod beach.
Friend and neighbor Sylvana Strong said Kelsey “lived her life fully, never afraid to try new things.”
One of her favorite memories was the two of them jumping into a swimming pool with their clothes on.
“She was a bright fire in all of our lives,” Strong said.
Kelsey’s father, Tom Shannon, closed the service by tearfully asking the young people in the audience to “please recognize your parents as friends. Take your problems to them and talk with them, even if they don’t have the answers.”
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
