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Nelson Kepley / AP
Clutching a program memorializing five people who died after they were shot on Nov. 20, two people embrace outside Pleasant Garden Baptist Church after a funeral on Friday.
Hundreds of friends, teenagers and teachers filled a North Carolina church on Friday to join a family as it buried five children killed in what investigators have described as a family massacre.
Mourners packed into Pleasant Garden Baptist Church to attend the collective funeral for the five children, ages 8 to 17, who authorities say were gunned down in a shooting rampage by Mary Ann Holder, 36. Authorities say Holder apparently shot one of her sons and three other children while they slept at her Pleasant Garden home, shot and wounded her married former lover, then killed her younger son. Holder then killed herself.
Four of the children survived for days with what Sheriff BJ Barnes said were bullet wounds to the head. Holder left two notes apologizing for the pain she'd caused, Barnes said.
So many people attended the funeral in Guilford County that an overflow crowd gathered in the gym of the Family Life Center to watch a live video feed.
Four ministers led the service in the pulpit, under which lay the closed caskets of the five children. Three of the ministers eulogized the child or children they knew best.
Authorities say Holder killed her two sons: Robert Dylan Smith, 17, and Zachary Smith, 14. Barnes said she also killed the niece and nephew she took into her home when her sister died: Richard Brian Suttles, 17, and Hannaleigh Suttles, 8. She also mortally wounded Makayla Leigh Woods, Robert's 15-year-old girlfriend.
"It takes your breath away," friend Brooke Bex said. "I never thought I'd see my friends in a casket at that age."
Another friend, Adam Couch. was a pallbearer for Dylan Smith. He said he choked up when the family asked him to be part of the memorial.
"I never would have thought in a million years I'd be carrying my best friend to his grave, but I'm honored to do it," Couch said.
Holder's mother, Frances, said the family was praying that at least one of the children would survive to describe what happened. Frances Holder said she can't believe her daughter was responsible for the mass killings because she cared deeply for her children.
"People are calling my daughter a deadbeat mother, she was a no-good mother," Frances Holder said Thursday outside the church where mourners visited with the family. "She was very close to her children. I don't know what happened. I have no answers. I'm waiting for answers, just like everyone else."
Mary Ann Holder had been having an affair with Randall Lamb, 40, for more than three years, and its aftermath created months of bitter accusations involving Holder, Lamb and Lamb's wife, including allegations of stalking and harassment.
Jennifer Lamb had prepared but not yet filed a potentially costly lawsuit against Holder accusing her of alienating the affections of her husband, investigators said.
Mary Ann Holder met Randall Lamb the night before the shooting rampage to give him a $10,000 check in an apparent settlement aimed at staving off the threatened lawsuit, criminal investigators said in a search warrant. Holder then asked to meet him again the next morning in a community college parking lot.
That meeting ended with Holder firing several shots at Randall Lamb and wounding him in the shoulder. He recovered in a hospital and has returned home.
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Leave a Comment:
We live in a world of such total chaos now days!! Most people would give their lives to save their children, so it's impossible to understand how anyone could kill their own child...or anyone else's as far as that goes! I think it's a sign of the times. If you read Revelations in your Bible it tells about everything that is going on now. Very sad. I sympathize with the families who are affected by this horrific loss!
People have always killed their own children. BTW it is Book of Revelation (no s).
I don't think this is the time or place for your comment.
"Jennifer Lamb had prepared but not yet filed a potentially costly lawsuit against Holder accusing her of alienating the affections of her husband, investigators said."
When seeking revenge, first dig two graves...in this case 6 graves. I hold Jennifer Lamb partly responsible for this rampage.
Total chaos NOW DAYS???? What time in history was better? WW2 when millions of white men slaughtered each other and one anothers' children? WW1, the "Civil" War, back further, when Americans slaughtered the women and children of the ppl who were here first? The only difference between the REST of human history & today is that TODAY YOU KNOW ABOUT IT!!! Once upon a time you could learn about Pol Pot on the shortrwave, listen to the news of Colombian death squads on the satellite channels and read in the Berkeley Barb about the medical experiments carried out by US forces in Guatemala. But it wasn't in your face, you had to seek out the evil - these days, evil and the dark side of humanity is just fodder for the Internet, if you don't like to KNOW about the horrors, DON'T seek out the info, just turn to ABCNews and hear all the happy talk - the world will always be like this, as it always was, but we CAN try to do something other than whine about it - or just ignore it...
I can't see where Jennifer Lamb has any to do with what this whack job did; certainly, her so called husband is the one that should've been lashed out against, but understandabely she went after the woman he was seeing. He and Holder guilty as hell in that one, but not Jennifer. That doesn't even make sense.
If in saying so, that's akin to saying that anyone that gets upset and legally goes after another is liable for the actions taken by the person being gone against, and that's simply ridiculous. I don't have a right to go on a shooting rampage if I'm fired, if I have an affair and my wife goes after me or the woman I'm seeing in whatever legal suit can be mustered, and the thought of going after those closest to me, not involved whatsoever.... speaks volumes as to what this thing is, and the more of these articles I read...... I swear, there's more of these 'on the edge' sorts. I have spoken to a few people that I've thought, 'you're going to be on the news one day'.
Not even close to stable, seem VERY off, but have done nothing..... so what can others do? Wait for soemthing to happen? It's all on Holder, then some, perhaps, for the guy she was seeing as he was completely in the wrong but again.... nothing justified what Holder did, and certainly Jennifer's not even on the list of guilt.
Responsible for your own actions, and me mine. POS Holder is soley to blame in this (again, unless you wish to include the cheating scum to some degree, but STILL doesn't warrant what this thing did).
One Holder wanted a married man and went along for 3yrs in a affair that should have never happened. The husband is dirt for doing this to his wife if you want to cheat get a divorce or seperate. I'm sure his wife is standing by her man and if she is then we know she nuts too. Then holder takes it out on everyone and it has to be the kids. I'm tired of these losers that have to kill there kids along with themselves or just the kids. They think it justifiys there actions that is BS !!! I hope she burned in hell for murders and on top of it she kills her son's girlfriend. Hey lets kill the mail lady also she said hi to me. Holders mom is upset that people are bad mouthing her dead daughter. Too bad she is a selfish monster and no she did not love her kids. If you love your kids no matter what happens nothing should make you hurt them or anyone else. People these days go broke and say hell let me kill my family thats a great answer. What happens if the earth goes dark is every family going to kill themselves. I lost my job let me kill my kids that will fix it !!! Plain old losers and a sad world we live in.
Sickening, really. I don't care if she filed a lawsuit or not... Ms. Holder was having an affair with her husband. It's Ms. Holder and Randy Lamb's fault.
I am with you.......
This is what happens in other countries when their is no work no home no food it is chaos in it's worse And i think we will see more killings of entire families as life has become so hard on the families of unemployment and no one cares. MY sympathize go out to all affected by this loss.
Unless I'm missing something, this case isn't about lack of necessities; it's about lack of morals. And the former "lover" was only wounded? If that's the case, he must carry tremendous guilt.
this isn't about a down and out woman who was struggling to survive in a difficult ecomomy (and that's no excuse anyway)...
according to the article she was handing over a $10,000 check to her dumba$$ married boyfriend so she wouldn't be sued. i don't have $10,000 laying around... do you??
this is about a bitter woman who didn't get her way, a morally depraved man, and his pissed-off wife who couldn't behave like adults. i think all three of them are guilty for the deaths of these children.
So sorry for the families and friends of these poor kids.
The part that makes me angry the most are the notes she wrote saying she was sorry. Sorry for what? What does an apology mean when your last actions are to murder your own children and the children of other people in cold blood? I only wish she wasn't dead, not because I think she doesn't deserve it, but because I want to know WHY, as does every member of her family, I'm sure.
I know why cause she is a self centered person and couldn't not get what she wanted. So she punished everyone for it !!! EVIL JUST PURE EVIL
We live in a extremely conformist society that strongly encourages practically everyone should have children, no matter what. This, in spite of the fact that not everyone is suitable to be a parent. In the end, there are many innocent, hapless children that suffer, and are suffering, because of this.
wait - what? she was paying a married man because he had an affair with her? WTH, this sounds like blackmail!
In this STATE you can be held liable (the LOVER) for ending or causing great distress in a marrage. A women in Raleigh sued her ex-husband and the lover he left her for and got 1 million.....hence why she THE LOVER was trying to BUY the wife's withdrawl of the law suit.....
This story literally brought me to tears. unbelievable
consider yourself one of the lucky ones...you still have feelings. Need more like you.
Those "alienating of affection" lawsuits need to go away. Ditch your @!$%# husband, he is a POS and he always will be, it wasn't the "ho" that did it and I doubt if she was the first and she won't be the last. Your husband is the one that should have had the commitment to you, not his piece on the side, if it wasn't that one, it would have been someone else. It's a shame that woman didn't blow his head off and her own and leave the kids out of it.
"Praise the lord" delusional bible belt syndrome, well redressed southern charm, extra marital affairs, jealously, and blackmail, all lead to a very, very unhappy ending.
I'm with you on the notes bit. Sorry, no way was she sorry.
She was a self centered sociopath that felt nothing for her children. She felt sorry for HERSELF and no one else. She needed to cause pain to others to prove what a sorry person she could be.
I am glad that she is dead because to keep such a person alive and well at tax payers expense is just so wrong in so many ways.
Just because she was a sociopath does NOT mean that she didn't know what she was doing was wrong and did it anyway.
Those kids should have been packing heat, more guns is always the answer.
Steven100: " She was a self centered sociopath that felt nothing for her children. She felt sorry for HERSELF and no one else. She needed to cause pain to others to prove what a sorry person she could be."
Cosign.
Don't get involved with married men NOT WORTH it find a man that cares for you and let that be that......men come and go but children are forever....
Or married women !! They can play hard also
Don't get involved with any married person, be it man or woman. When the passion ends, someone always pays a price and its never worth it. And of course, you'll never escape God's watchful eye. "Thou shalt not commit adultery".- Exodus 20:14
This should serve as a good reason to everyone out there as to why you should never cheat on your spouse. It can very well lead you or someone else to an early grave and leave a family grieving.
Atleast she killed herself.
Just sad the stupid cow had to take other people with her. Selfish witch.
When women stoop to our level then I really worry about the future of our society..Js husband
our level? lol
there is no level, people do things Regardless of gender... cut out the double standard crap.
This is just so sad and senseless it makes me sick. What really gets me more than anything is why people that are so miserable in their personal lives feel it necessary to kill others too in their misery and decide children are the ones that should pay for their misery. Why couldn't she have taken her own useless life instead of inflicting this much damage and torment on a family? No, she had to go out and make sure others suffered because of what she did. I hope she burns in hell if there is one. She has a right to kill herself for her own bad decisions, and that was her choice, but she didn't have the right to take the lives of others with her. People like her define the word "selfish" and "miserable human being". What a waste of children so young. Who knows what they could have contributed to this world. Thanks to this useless piece of flesh, we will never know.
Actually, I understand why she did what she did although I certainly don't agree with it.
She is in a relationship with a man for three years and then he breaks it off. Then, the man's wife decides to take her to the cleaners (apparently he was doing nothing to stop her either). Even though she offers him $10,000 not to go through with it and drag her and her family through the mud, it is not good enough. So she shoots him.
When she realizes that it is going to be public fodder and that she AND her children are going to face ridicule all over town, she can't stomach it. She feels she has no other way out. She feels backed into a corner and completely alone. People already think very little of her. Now they will start on the kids, too. There is no way her kids are going to face what she has.
This is how she is thinking in this situation. She is not being selfish -- she is panicking; in full fight or flight mode and she knows she can't win a fight. This is her version of taking flight with her chicks. It isn't rational but it is her view of the situation. This is a form of temporary insanity, not deliberate cruelty.
sympathy for the devil much?
forget all the speculation and the tear jerkers, at the end of the day she did what she did... By her own hands. Point Blank.