Oct 26, 2009 11:21 am US/Central
Family, Friends Pay Last Respects To McClendons
2 Teens Charged In Connection To Murdered Parents Of CLTV Host
MUNSTER, Ind. (CBS) ―
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Friends and family gather to pay their last respects to Milton and Ruby McClendon, the parents of CLTV talk show host Garrard McClendon.
CBS
Family and friends of a murdered elderly couple from Hammond have gathered to pay their last respects, as the funeral for the parents of CLTV talk show host Garrard McClendon was held Tuesday morning.
An overflow crowd of hundreds arrived at St. Paul's Episcopal Church for the services. They're remembering a couple who clearly left a mark on their community.
A constant stream of mourners filed into the church for the visitation and funeral. It was exactly one week ago that police found the bodies of Milton McClendon,78, and his wife, Ruby, 76, in Calumet City. Their bodies were dumped there after they had been robbed and shot to death in their Hammond home.
Some family members stopped to pay tribute to the McClendons on their way inside the church.
"I married into the family," said relative Jean Denham. "When I came here from Mississippi, they treated me like I was their first cousin, too."
"They are wonderful people," said Milton's cousin, Lawrence Denham. "Just very giving people and kind."
The family finds it hard to believe that anyone would want to harm them.
The Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune reports that three suspects tied the couple up and left them in a closet before returning to the home later and shooting them.
The high profile crime has attracted a large crowd of mourners, the size of which this church has never seen.
"For such a small church, this is a big deal," said Eric Nowicki, a church member who helped planned the funeral. "We have three or four lots packed with people and we're expecting 300 or more people coming today."
The church normally seats 200, but because of the turnout they've set up a video feed for the overflow crowd in the church hall.
Two suspects, Reo Thompson, 17, and Gregory Brooks Jr., 18, are facing charges of robbery, burglary and auto theft. Hammond police will update information about the charges at a news conference Monday afternoon.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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