Posted on Thu,
Public case a private anguish
for woman
By SARA SHEPHERD
The
Summer Shipp
As authorities in
It wasn’t until
Shipp reached
“At that point, I
dropped the phone, fell on the floor, and cried and screamed hysterically,”
Shipp said Thursday.
Summer Shipp had
been missing almost three years.
She disappeared
This week, as she prepares
for a memorial service, Brandy Shipp still feels numb about the discovery.
“It’s like I know
it, but I don’t,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m still in denial or just in
shock.”
She hopes
Saturday’s service will be at least a little bit upbeat, with photos, a display
of her mother’s antique purse collection and performances by Ida McBeth and David Basse, some of
Summer Shipp’s many friends.
Brandy Shipp plans
to speak, too. She has a poem in mind, but she’s still not sure exactly what
else she’s going to say.
Maybe something
about her mother’s “aura of goodness” or how she always left people with a
happy feeling and saw beauty in everything, even the little things.
The number of
lives she touched became even more apparent through the outpouring of support
the family received after her disappearance.
In the days after
her mother’s remains were identified, Shipp said, she received 600 to 800
e-mails from people offering condolences.
John Shipp,
Brandy’s father and Summer’s former husband, marveled
at the hundreds of people who backed up their well-wishes shortly after
Summer’s disappearance by donating money, distributing fliers and even helping
with searches.
“It’s been a
marvelous case of the community pulling together for a person many of them
didn’t even know,” he said.
The memorial
service will be a chance for those people to say goodbye, Brandy Shipp said.
At some point,
after authorities release the remains, the family will plan a private funeral,
she said.
Shipp said it’s
hard to stomach the fact that someone killed her mother — then 54 — and
apparently dumped her body into a river.
Confirming her
mother’s death doesn’t give Shipp closure, she said. Her mother still was taken
away from people who loved her.
But it does
provide “one more piece to the puzzle.”
Shipp said she
would let police do their work.
“Eventually I
think we’ll find the person who did this to my mother,” she said.
“I think it’s just
a matter of time.”
Since her mother’s
disappearance, Shipp has been active with missing persons
efforts. She plans to continue her involvement and continues to push for
passage of related legislation.
Shipp’s aunt, Fran
Nelson of
“She’s been strong
from the beginning,” Nelson said. “She never gave up hope.”
SERVICE
A memorial service for Summer Shipp is set for
@ Go to KansasCity.com for a video of Brandy Shipp talking about
her mother.
To reach Sara Shepherd, call 816-234-4366 or send
e-mail to sshepherd@kcstar.com.