A single white coffin stacked with yellow roses held the bodies of two young brothers, "precious jewels" whose drowning was mourned by hundreds crowded into a small country church on Sunday.
David Smith, with bowed shoulders and a handkerchief stifling his sobs, followed as the coffin holding his sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, was wheeled from the church to a cemetery.The boys' mother, Susan Smith, was absent - behind bars and charged with killing her sons by strapping them into their car safety-seats and sending the car rolling into a lake.
About 300 people crowded into the Buffalo United Methodist Church for the 45-minute service, where ministers assured mourners that the children were in better hands.
"Sometimes God takes from us the most precious jewels in life so he can give them back to us in eternity," the Rev. Joe Bridges said.
Outside, the gray sky hanging over the nearby Bogansville United Methodist Church cemetery matched the mood of this textile town of about 10,000 in northwest South Carolina.
Scores of flower arrangements - one with a Winnie the Pooh bear - were spread over a large part of the cemetery around the boys' grave. A sign close to the coffin read, "Alex and Michael. Heaven Bound."
Cars lined the small county road as mourners viewed the coffin.
The boys were found at the bottom of Lake John D. Long on Thursday. Nine days earlier their mother told police a man with a gun took her car and her children and drove off.
As the community and the nation mourned, new details surfaced.
CBS news, citing a law enforcement source, reported that the investigation into the killings continued and that at least one other person could be arrested. However, state police Chief Robert Stewart said that he knew of no other arrests.