600 Gather for Final Farewell to 4 Victims of Plane Crash : Simi Valley: Family and students pay tribute to Donald Lee and Peggy Lou Muchmore, son Brandon Miller and friend Venessa Gonzalez.

About 600 relatives, friends, schoolmates and co-workers packed a church Monday morning to say their last farewells to four Simi Valley residents killed in an Arizona plane crash.

The bodies of Donald Lee Muchmore, 52; his wife, Peggy Lou Muchmore, 47; her son, Brandon Miller, and his Simi Valley High School classmate, Venessa Gonzalez, both 18, were found April 28 in the wreckage of a small airplane on an Arizona mountain.

The Cessna 182 was piloted by Donald Muchmore and had been missing since taking off from Albuquerque, N.M., 10 days earlier.

It is believed the plane went down in bad weather, but the investigation into the accident has not been completed, Arizona Civil Air Patrol officials said. A single funeral service was held for the four Monday morning at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Simi Valley.

Simi Valley High School classmates of Brandon Scott Miller and Venessa Gonzalez issued tearful eulogies. Adult co-workers and friends of the Muchmores also grieved.

The Simi Valley High School Choral Ensemble brought many to tears with a plaintive rendition of “Danny Boy.”

Miller’s teammates on the track and cross-country teams remembered his quirky sense of humor. They talked of the time he goaded them to run through the Simi Valley woods wearing their running shorts on their heads.

Gonzalez’s friends recalled the girl they knew as “Speedy” for being “too nice all the time.” She, too, ran track and cross-country. Her friends talked of slumber parties and gossiping in the girls’ restroom at school.

“I can still see her running to class with her oversized backpack and track shoes,” said a sobbing Leah Brosseau. Miller and Gonzalez were both seniors at the school.

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Co-workers of the Muchmores also paid tribute to the hard-working and easygoing couple--recalling how they both loved Peggy’s son.

“Peggy was so proud of Brandon and his accomplishments,” Dr. Ronald Rothman told the audience. Peggy Muchmore was Rothman’s dental assistant.

Because Donald Muchmore retired last year as a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy after serving 24 years, he was buried with full police honors.

A police escort of two motorcycles and nine patrol cars led the mile-long procession of cars from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Simi Valley Cemetery, where the four were buried side by side.

The first round of a 21-gun salute fired by seven members of the sheriff’s Honor Guard startled mourners at the grave site. The smell of gunpowder wafted into the cold air as storm clouds gathered in the distance.

After a brief service, the many mourners lingered at the graveside for nearly an hour. Clusters of mourners gathered at each of the four caskets that were surrounded by flowers and photographs of the dead.

The four, returning from a trip to Arkansas, were headed to the Santa Paula Airport when the plane crashed. The Muchmores were planning to move to Arkansas next month.

The Muchmores had just put the finishing touches on their Fayetteville retirement home. Their son had been accepted to the University of Arkansas on a full academic scholarship.