Slain Nurse Remembered for Her Love, Humor

Slain nurse Kellie O’Sullivan was bid a tearful farewell Saturday with flowers, anecdotes and a lilting violin rendition of “Danny Boy.”

More than 300 friends, relatives, police and civilians, many of whom joined a massive 12-day search after O’Sullivan’s disappearance Sept. 14, crowded into St. Jude’s Catholic Church for a memorial service that paid tribute to her humor and love.

O’Sullivan’s family sat in the front row. Her 5-year-old son, clutching a small stuffed animal, was flanked by ex-husband Cliff O’Sullivan and mother Sharlene Cunningham. Her boyfriend, Kevin White, sat nearby.

Two civilian searchers found the 34-year-old woman’s body in a brush-choked gully in the Santa Monica Mountains one week ago this morning. She had been shot to death.

Police say 19-year-old Mark Scott Thornton is the prime suspect in her disappearance. He is being held in Ventura County Jail, awaiting an arraignment scheduled for Tuesday.

Although speakers at the service dwelt on O’Sullivan’s life, they also touched briefly on her sudden death.

“Her body was discovered last Sunday, but her soul was already with God in a place where pain is not remembered, where fear does not exist, where justice at last is served,” said Msgr. Thomas O’Connell, pastor of St. Jude’s, his voice breaking.

O’Connell asked the mourners, many of them fighting tears, to remember “this dear and harmless girl, whose pain was brief, thank God. . . . Kellie is at peace in a far better world, where there are no hiding places, no violence, no handguns, no carjackers, only love.”

O’Sullivan disappeared while running errands in the area. Probably the last friend to see her alive was Dr. Stefan Feldman. She had visited Feldman’s office to pick up photographs of a grueling mountain marathon that the two had run.

“Running long distance can sometimes be tedious and boring,” Feldman said Saturday in a eulogy. “But somehow the miles and minutes would pass more quickly while Kellie was around.”

He recalled how she once gave up a chance to set a personal record in a 10-kilometer race when she stopped to help a stranger who had fallen.

As the service drew to a close, Cliff O’Sullivan stepped to the podium. “Kellie had a lot of pet names for me, which aren’t suitable to repeat here,” he said, drawing laughs from her friends and family. “We had a lot of laughs together. We had hard times together, but I think if she would want us to do anything, it is to remember her sense of humor.”

After the last song had faded, he rose alone, took his son in his arms and carried him out of the packed, silent church.