SPANISH FORK — Loving, loyal and devoted.
That's how Todd Staheli and his wife, Michelle, were remembered by friends and family Thursday at a memorial service in Spanish Fork.
The two were found bludgeoned with a sharp instrument as they slept in their beds Nov. 30. How the killer or killers were able to enter and exit their secured home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, remains a mystery.
Todd Staheli, a Shell Oil executive, died shortly after the attack. His wife died Dec. 4.
Condolences came from the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder Donald L. Staheli, a member of the LDS Church's First Quorum of the Seventy, read a letter directed to the family's surviving four children. Elder Staheli said he was a cousin but didn't know the family.
The letter from the LDS Church's First Presidency told the children, who range in age from 3 to 13, to always remember the special love and dreams their parents had for them. The Stahelis "looked for the flowers and not the weeds," said Larry Haslam, Michelle's former LDS bishop.
"Todd and Michelle loved each other very, very much," said Todd's brother, Chad Staheli. "She was Todd's first and only love."
Added Zera Staheli, Todd's father: "If this life is all there is, that is the greatest tragedy of mankind. I have a firm belief in life after death and that Todd and Michelle are still alive."
During Todd's tenure with Shell Oil, the family lived in such exotic locales as Russia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, London, Libya and Bolivia. Friends were conducting memorial services in many of those areas at the same time of the funeral, said Karen Sullivan, a friend of the couple.
The children are staying with family members until it is decided where they will live.
E-mail: rodger@desnews.com