On one cold day, a warm goodbye

Family, friends recall 'one wonderful lady,' left for dead in alley

By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 29, 2007 at 12:30 a.m.

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A woman cries during Pyle?s funeral. ?I wish I could have known her, because I think we would have been friends,? said the Rev. S. Tucker, of Oasis Center for Spirituality, as she began Friday?s service.

Judy Pyle

Photo by Photos By Chris Schneider / The Rocky

Judy Pyle's son, Ron, left, friends and co-workers attend her funeral Friday afternoon at Crown Hill Cemetery in Wheat Ridge. Pyle, 61, died Dec. 8 after she was attacked, raped and left in a north Denver alley on a frigid night.

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Judy Pyle and Amanda Geffre cut a little deal at door No. 5 of the Pepsi Center, where they shared ushering duties.

Pyle, you see, was a devoted Denver Nuggets fan. Geffre's allegiances ran with the Colorado Avalanche and Colorado Mammoth. And so they would trade off, each allowing the other to catch snippets of their favorite teams.

Friday afternoon, those who cared about Judy Pyle buried her in Crown Hill Cemetery, beneath towering blue spruce and cedar trees.

They fought back tears. They held each other against a numbing chill. They shared memories.

And they tried to remember how Pyle lived, not the horrible way she died.

Pyle, 61, was headed home from her Pepsi Center job late the night of Dec. 8. She had gotten off a bus and was walking down a north Denver alley when she was attacked, raped and left in a heap on a frigid night.

Weakened by health problems, Pyle could not get up. Someone who heard her pleas for help called police, and though she was rushed to the hospital, she died about 41/2 hours later - a result of having been left in the cold and other health problems.

Donations make funeral possible

On Dec. 17, Denver police arrested Willie James Trimble, a 45-year-old with a long criminal record. According to court documents, DNA linked him to the attack on Pyle.

But Friday wasn't about Trimble. It was about Pyle, a woman who struggled financially, who struggled to help her son - her only child - who has had a series of scrapes with the law and landed in jail, again, on the day she died.

"I wish I could have known her, because I think we would have been friends," said the Rev. S. Tucker of Oasis Center for Spirituality, as she began Friday's service.

Tucker was one of the people who made it possible for Pyle, who had little money, have a decent funeral. Stork Family Mortuary and Crown Hill Cemetery both made donations, as did Denver's victim services program. And so about 60 people, many of whom worked with Pyle, gathered beneath snow-clumped trees and said goodbye.

Pyle's son, Ron, arrived in a Denver Sheriff's Department van, escorted by two deputies. He sat in the front row, beneath a green canopy, and struggled at times to hold back his emotions.

As everyone else moved in close, Tucker told them that "God blesses each one of us with the comfort that we need in this hour of great sorrow" and grants "the courage that we need to release our beloved Judith."

Near the end of her eulogy, Tucker read the 23rd Psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want . . .

. . . Surely goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

"Judith now dwells in the house of the Lord forever, comforted and loved by God through us and our memories of her," Tucker said.

Friends share memories

When she invited Pyle's friends to share memories, they lined up.

Richard Reed, who worked with her at the now-demolished Rocky Flats bomb-making site, talked about her infectious happiness. During their time together, they were surrounded by about 8,000 workers, he said.

"Some of them stand out in your mind," he said, "and Judy definitely is one of them."

Richard Schuetz, who worked with Pyle at a rental car agency, recalled conversations with her about guardian angels, about his young son, about life.

"She is one wonderful lady," he said, unable, still, to use the past tense to talk about Pyle.

And Patty Geffre talked about her daughter, Amanda, and the way she and Pyle worked door No. 5. And then she turned to Ron Pyle.

"She loved you dearly," Geffre said, "She always had a spark in her eye when she talked about you."

After the funeral, Ron Pyle walked to a table set up in the snow, stopped at a collage of photographs of his mother, and broke down.

A few minutes later, he trudged across the snow to a Denver sheriff's van and climbed in.

The van pulled away, heading back to jail, back to a life that he will have to learn to live without his mother.

Donations sought

* Judy Pyle's friends are raising money to buy her a headstone and defray other costs. Donations can be made to: The Judith Pyle Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 291031, Denver, CO 80229-1031.

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