Memorial service held for three slain children
HAGERMAN, Idaho – Three southern Idaho children found dead in their home last week were remembered as fun-loving kids who brought joy to those around them.
”(They) brought light and laughter into our home,” said their grandmother, Roberta Olsen.
Six-year-old twin boys Justin and Spencer Nice and their 2-year-old sister, Raquel Nice, were eulogized Tuesday. Their father, Jim Junior Nice, remains jailed after being charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
“My heart aches today,” Bishop Jay Hauser said at a memorial service at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Hagerman.
The children were found dead Dec. 21 in a house in Twin Falls. Prosecutors allege Nice, 33, used rat poison and over-the-counter medication to kill his children. Police said Nice told them he “didn’t want the kids to suffer through the divorce.”
Court records from Jim and Leslie Nice’s divorce earlier this year showed the children had been previously removed from their custody by state welfare officials after the May 2004 death of their 22-month-old son, Ian Nice, who was found drowned in Harmon Park in Twin Falls.
The three children had been placed in the custody of their grandparents for several months. The kids eventually went back to live with their parents, but the marriage didn’t survive.
Olsen said the boys loved jumping on a trampoline, playing in the mud, and going to the pasture with their grandfather, the Times-News reported.
She also said the boys brought great joy and love to their mother, Leslie.
“They were a tremendous blessing to Leslie’s life,” Olsen said.
She said Raquel was just beginning to speak in full sentences.
“How do you hold a sunbeam in your hand?” she asked a packed sanctuary. “She could wrap any man, of any age, around her finger in an instant.”
“Justin, Spencer, Raquel and Ian are happy now and so is Leslie,” Olsen said. “She knows without a doubt where her children are.”
The children were buried at Mount McCaleb Cemetery in Mackay.