Appomattox shooting victims remembered at funeral in Lynchburg

Family and friends remembered Dwayne and Lauralee Sipe and their young son, Joshua, as a fun-loving, happy family during a funeral service Monday at Heritage Baptist Church in Lynchburg.

It was the second of four services scheduled for the eight victims of last week’s mass slayings in Appomattox County. Lauralee Sipe’s daughter, Morgan Dobyns, was remembered Sunday during a service at Heritage Funeral Home on Graves Mill Road, and two remaining services are set for today.

More than 150 people filled the sanctuary for the hour-long service, where speakers told stories about Dwayne Sipe’s love of life, Lauralee’s smile and 4-year-old Joshua’s sweet nature. Three coffins sat at the front of the sanctuary, with Joshua’s white one between those of his parents. All three were covered in red roses.

Dobyns and the Sipes lived in the same Snapps Mill Road home as Christopher Speight, the man who has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of his sister, Lauralee Sipe, and is under investigation for the other seven deaths.

Monday’s service focused on the good times those assembled had with the family — something Dwayne Sipe, known as Shannon, would have approved of, said his brother, Robert New.

“He enjoyed life,” New said during the service. “He wouldn’t want us to sit here and be sad all day.”

Sarah Conaway, a half-sister, said that Sipe once told her he would want people to wear bright colors, and not black, to his funeral.

“Shannon,” she said, “I want you to know the only reason I wore black is because it’s slimming.”

The pair had reconnected last year, getting to know each other through phone conversations and almost daily e-mails. In one exchange, she sent him a poem she’d written about their grandfather’s death.

“His response to me was, ‘I can only hope that one day someone will remember me with that same depth,’” she told those at the service. “Well, brother, that day is today.”

She described her brother as fearless, spiritual and protective, someone who wanted her to send him a list of ex-boyfriends “because he wanted to beat them up.”

Conaway had a similar bond with Lauralee Sipe, with whom she shared a love of “music, star-stalking and, most of all, we shared a love for my brother.”

She also recalled sending the couple a Christmas card last year.

“I wrote them one line each that would sum up our relationship,” she said, quoting it: “To Laura, you are my accomplice. To Shannon, you are my hero.”

New spoke about the wild younger years he shared with Sipe and their brother, Bobby — “Most of the trouble we got into, Shannon started, Bobby helped out and I stood back and said, ‘You shouldn’t do that.’”

He also praised Sipe’s willingness to help out a loved one, like when he anonymously paid one of New’s medical bills.

“He denied it, denied it, denied it,” New said. “But I knew it was him because that’s what he would’ve done.”

Kim Cooper, Lauralee Sipe’s best friend, was one of the last to speak. She remembered Josh, “my little man,” as a sweet boy. She also talked about what a good friend and positive person his mother was.

“She took care of me,” Cooper said. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do without her.

“She always had that beautiful smile on her face. I don’t think I ever saw her angry. She always thought the best of everybody. That was just her way.”