Mourners pay loving tribute to slaying victim

April 17, 2010|By DON AINES

By Kevin G. Gilbert, Staff Photographer

HAGERSTOWN -- More than 150 friends and family filled long tables and lined the walls of the Wilson Ruritan to say goodbye Friday to Kristy Dawn Hoke, the mother of three who was found dead in a wooded area of Waynesboro, Pa., earlier this month.

"I don't really know what to say, but I know my mom's in a better place," Hoke's oldest daughter, 14-year-old Whitnie Wyand, told the gathering. "I'm going to be here for my brother and sister, and I'm going to be the best big sister I can be."

"I'm just afraid my sister will never remember my mom," a tearful Whitnie said. Hoke had two other children, 9-year-old Darian Ingram and 3-year-old Alivia Hoke, according to Hoke's mother, Beverly Durboraw.

"You tell her all the good things ... She'll grow up to love your mother, just like you do," said Hoke's grandmother, Dorothy High of Falling Waters, W.Va. "Just like we all do."

"You don't find this kind of love and commitment everywhere," said Steve Kump of Hagerstown, who led the gathering in prayer and read Psalm 23 and Ecclesiastes 3:1. "This does not happen without the love of Jesus Christ in people's hearts."

Hoke, 29, of 13616 Lois St. in Hagerstown, was found dead in a wooded area near the intersection of East Ninth Street and Clayton Avenue on the morning of April 6. Her mother said Hoke had gone Easter shopping for her children April 3, the last time she saw her alive.

Jeffrey Eldon Miles Sr., 47, of 485 East Ave., State Line, Pa., has been charged by Pennsylvania State Police with criminal homicide in Hoke's death.

"I've been best friends with Kristy for years and loved her with every fiber of my body," Missy Moore of Hagerstown said. "Both of our sons were born at around the same time, about 10 years ago. Since then, we've been inseparable.

"She loved everybody and there wasn't anybody who didn't love her," Moore said.

"I know she's looking down on us now," Durboraw said. "I think she's at peace now."

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