San Fernando Valley : Funeral Held for Slain Executive

Searching for solace amid a tragedy that, in a priest’s words, “seems to have no rhyme or reason,” hundreds of friends, co-workers and family members gathered Wednesday to mourn Dixie Lee Hollier, the Warner Bros. Records manager whose teenage daughter has been charged with her murder.

Just hours before the funeral at St. Robert Bellarmine Roman Catholic Church in Burbank, a judge rescinded his order of a day earlier permitting the daughter, Amber Merrie Bray, 18, to attend the service.

Bray’s lawyer had persuaded Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Bascue that most of Hollier’s family wanted the dead woman’s eldest child there even though she had been charged in her mother’s death.

But the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Burbank police objected, citing security concerns. At least one relative also complained, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Bray faces the death penalty in the crime, as does her boyfriend, Jeffrey Glenn Ayers. Hollier was shot, stabbed and beaten to death Jan. 16. Police said they found Ayers crouched over Hollier’s body with a knife in his hand as they responded to a call from a neighbor.