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| Slain Florida Prison Officer's Funeral Draws 1,500 |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/27/2003 |
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About 1,500 people turned out June 17 for the funeral of a Florida prison officer who was slain during an escape attempt last week. Darla Lathrem, 38, who had been on the job about a year, was killed June 11 at Charlotte Correctional Institution when inmates working on a construction crew she was supervising tried to escape. She was the first correctional officer to be killed in 16 years and the first ever woman officer to lose her life. 'She was a rookie. We watched her blossom into an awesome officer,' her supervisor, Sgt. Roderick Spears, said at the service at McGregor Baptist Church. 'We've got an angel watching over Charlotte now.' Later, law enforcement officers gathered 20 rows deep for a graveside service at Memorial Gardens cemetery in Fort Myers. The ceremony included a fly over by seven helicopters and a shotgun salute by correctional officers. Department of Corrections Secretary James Crosby presented Lathrem's parents, Mary and David Lathrem of Fort Myers Shores, with the flag from her white casket. No one has been charged in Lathrem's slaying, and authorities still aren't talking about the details of how she died, although Gov. Jeb Bush said recently that she 'was brutally murdered with a sledgehammer.' Two inmates were injured in the escape attempt and one, Charles Fuston, later died. Another inmate, convicted murderer Dwight Eaglin, was captured after he used a makeshift ladder to scale an inner perimeter fence. Two other inmates were captured in a dormitory room. |
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