Fla. community mourns Stephen Pitcairn killed in Charles Village
Jul 30th, 2010 by Bilal Ali
Friends and family gathered Friday to mourn the passing of Stephen Pitcairn — a 23-year-old Johns Hopkins researcher who was stabbed to death Sunday night as he was walking to his Charles Village apartment.
“The value of life is not in longevity … the value of life is based on the quality of the chapters that God has written,” said Reverend Ronald Hilliard, who led the funeral service at First Presbyterian Church in North Palm Beach Friday morning.
Hilliard tried to comfort the grief-stricken community, still reeling from the unexpected death of Pitcairn, a researcher at a cell engineering laboratory on the Johns Hopkins medical campus.
“The reality is that in God’s eyes Stephen’s life was complete,” he said.
Pitcairn was robbed at knife point Sunday while on the phone with his mother. Authorities have charged John Alexander Wagner, 34, and Lavelva Merritt, 24, who police say were “hunting to rob someone,” with first-degree murder for Pitcairn’s death.
Speakers reflected on Pitcairn’s “intense” and “inquisitive” nature.
“He grabbed you and you just wanted to be where he was,” said Chris “Suds” Southard, the church’s youth director.
For the most part, Hilliard and the other speakers did not mention the tragic circumstances surrounding Pitcairn’s death, instead paying tribute to Pitcairn and his Christian faith.
Attendees watched slide after slide of pictures of Pitcairn during the service. The photographs, some of which were of him as a small child, elicited sniffles, tears and even momentary laughter.