SEATTLE — The girls filed into the funeral service in their lacrosse uniforms Saturday, with “MC Brave” scrawled on their bare arms — a reminder of their friend and teammate Molly Conley, killed in an apparently random drive-by shooting last weekend as she celebrated her 15th birthday.
Conley, nicknamed “4.0” for her good grades at Bishop Blanchet High School, was shot in the neck along a road late June 1 in Lake Stevens, where she was out walking with friends. No one has been arrested in the case.
Family, friends and classmates attended her funeral Mass at the school’s performing arts center, KING-TV reported. The funeral came a day after Bishop Blanchet seniors honored her in speeches and in prayer during their commencement.
“Today our hearts are broken and we come here to greet her and celebrate her life because we know that the God who calls us is a God who knows what it is to lose a child,” the Rev. John Whitney said to begin the funeral.
Molly’s father, John, said his daughter was a rare individual whose spirit effortlessly filled a room.
“Molly’s physical presence will no longer enter the room, we will not feel her embrace, but that spirit she gifted us with is in this room right now, bigger than ever,” he said. “It may be hard to feel right now with the grief so raw but I know that it’s here. That’s our Molly, No. 13, with the yellow cleats.”
Her older brother, Johnny, described her as “supremely loving” and “utterly selfless.”
“She showed her love every single day,” he said.
Molly was spending the night at a friend’s house to celebrate her 15th birthday. Detectives believe she and a group of friends were walking to the lake when a shooter in a passing vehicle on South Lake Stevens Road opened fire.
Anyone with information about the crime is asked to contact the Snohomish County Major Crimes Unit.
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