Community Mourns Slain Girl Funeral A Tranquil Ending To Horrifying Two Weeks After Abduction, Rape, Murder Of 7-Year-Old
With the snowcapped Cascade mountains as a backdrop, the little girl whose abduction and brutal death inspired compassion and sympathy throughout this community was buried Saturday under a brilliant April sky.
For the friends and family of 7-year-old Roxanne Doll, it was a tranquil ending to what has been a horrifying two weeks since the child was taken from her south Everett home, raped and stabbed to death.
Her body was discovered April 8, a week after her disappearance. She had been buried in a shallow grave several miles away from the wooded knolls near her home where hundreds of volunteers had searched in vain.
The funeral and graveside service at Evergreen Funeral Home drew hundreds of mourners who came to pay their final respects to the second-grader who would have celebrated her eighth birthday next week.
“It’s just such a huge tragedy,” said Linda Franklin, 26, a family friend from Everett. “She was such a cute little girl. Now she’s gone.”
Family members, some of whom became daily fixtures on television newscasts and newspaper reports during the week that authorities searched for Roxanne, gathered near her tiny white coffin clutching pink roses, some burying their heads in their hands.
The victim’s mother, Gail Doll-Iffrig, was silent throughout the graveside service and left quickly after it concluded. Meanwhile, her husband, Tim Iffrig, stood stoically for nearly an hour after the service was over while a small group of people stood nearby.
But most of the mourners who crowded into the standing-room-only chapel and spilled onto the adjoining graveyard were people who had never met the girl - yet were compelled to offer their condolences anyway.
“It’s so important that the community came together on something like this,” said Danny Stevens, 26, an Everett resident who didn’t know Roxanne but took part in search efforts for her.
“If it was my little sister that was in there, well, I don’t know what I would do,” Stevens said. “But I’m here to let the family know that people really do care.”
Drew Price, 14, only met Roxanne once at a cousin’s birthday party, but said it was important to say goodbye one last time.
“I used to play in the field where they found her body,” Price said. “I never really knew her but she seemed very nice. I couldn’t live with myself if I hadn’t come.”
The three-hour proceeding, which featured poems and songs by family friends, concluded with mourners piling pink bows, flowers and teddy bears on Roxanne’s coffin.
A motorcycle ride in memory of Roxanne also drew dozens of mourners Saturday morning. The leather-clad group traveled first to Lynnwood and Everett and then on to Mount Vernon, Deception Pass and Whidbey Island before congregating at the Iffrig home.
The man suspected in Roxanne’s death was charged Friday with aggravated firstdegree murder and first-degree rape. Snohomish County prosecutors say it will be at least three weeks before they decide whether to seek the death penalty against 26-year-old Richard M. Clark.
The aggravated murder charge is the only one punishable by death in Washington. The sole alternative punishment upon conviction is life in prison without parole.
Clark, being held on $1 million bail, will be arraigned Monday.
Clark, a self-employed landscaper, was drinking with Roxanne’s father in the hours before the girl disappeared late March 31. Court papers allege that Clark abducted Roxanne while Iffrig was asleep and while Doll-Iffrig was at a movie.
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