JACKSON - Family members of slain Jackson State University student, Latasha Norman, will hold a private burial service after receiving her body this week.
A funeral service was held Dec. 8 for Norman who was missing for days before her body was discovered Nov. 29 in a wooded area.
The badly decomposed remains were shipped to a forensic anthropologist at the University of Southern Mississippi for examination. Officials determined that Norman had been stabbed to death. Her body was turned over to the family on Tuesday.
"We just want to put her in the ground so she can be at peace and so we can move on and continue healing," Danny Bolden, Norman's father, said Wednesday. "Our hearts were heavy, knowing that we hadn't gotten her back."
On Wednesday, nearly 20 family members from Greenville made the trip to a Jackson gospel concert to honor Norman and raise awareness of domestic violence. The concert is one of the most recent examples of how the Jackson community has embraced the family.
"We know that this is God working through these people to help touch us and bless us. People in Jackson and around the nation have reached out," Bolden said.
Norman's ex-boyfriend, Stanley Cole, was arrested and charged with murder the day the body was discovered. Information obtained from Cole during an interview led police to the body.
Jackson Police Department Sgt. Eric Smith would not say whether a murder weapon was found.
Smith said the case will be turned over to the Hinds County district attorney's office for a grand jury review. Cole is being held without bond at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond. His preliminary hearing is Jan. 7.
