Hundreds Mourn 5 Girls Trapped in Car Trunk

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — More than 1,300 people packed a chapel and gymnasium Wednesday for the funeral of five little girls who died of heat stroke Friday after accidentally locking themselves inside a car trunk.

“These five little darlings were just being children, and they thrilled at being discovered by a parent in an innocent game of hide-and-seek,” said Steve Bullock, a Mormon bishop and friend of one of the grieving families.

At Valley View Memorial Park, sisters Jaesha and Audrey Smith, ages 4 and 2; their cousins, sisters Alisha and Ashley Richardson, ages 6 and 3; and their 5-year-old neighborhood friend, McKell Hedden, were buried in a common grave. The sisters shared identical wooden coffins, stacked one above the other, and their friend’s white coffin was placed beside them.

The tragedy deeply affected residents of the Salt Lake Valley, where flags at government buildings have flown at half-staff.

Hundreds of people in recent days have driven by the house where the car was parked, some leaving flowers and other mementos.

The five children were reported missing by Dixie Smith, the mother of Audrey and Jaesha, who had been tending them. As afternoon temperatures approached 96 degrees and a frantic search was mounted, she at one point drove around the neighborhood unaware that the girls were in the trunk.

The bodies were found about 90 minutes after the girls were last seen, when police officers and one of the mothers popped the trunk on the 1993 Saturn.