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AKRON, Ohio - Family members and the community that searched for her bid a tearful farewell Saturday to a pregnant woman who was killed along with her unborn baby. "Our faith is challenged by what's going on," Bishop F. Josephus Johnson II said at the funeral service for Jessie Davis, 26. Authorities say Davis was killed by her police officer boyfriend in her home near North Canton on June 14. Her body was found in a park nine days later after thousands of volunteers spent three days Family members sobbed quietly as they approached the casket in the front of House of the Lord church, which was filled with about 750 mourners. Davis' father, Ned Davis, said his daughter was always determined. "She wasn't afraid to commit and go after what she wanted," he said. Her mother, Patricia Porter, said her daughter - even at a young age - wanted to help the needy through Christian missionary work. "She always had a heart for God and a heart for people," Porter said. Canton police officer, Bobby Cutts Jr., 30, has been charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Davis and her unborn baby, who was to be named Chloe. Davis was due to deliver Tuesday. Family members said Cutts was the father of the unborn baby and Davis' 2-year-old son. Davis was last heard from June 13. She was reported missing 1 day later when her mother went to her home and found Davis' son, Blake, alon and in a dirty diaper. It was Blake who provided authorities with the first clues, saying: "Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in rug." Davis' body was found June 23 in parkland northwest of Akron, about 25 miles from her home. Cutts was arrested on the day the body was found and has been held on $5 million bond. Authorities have not determined the cause of death because of advanced decomposition. The Summit County Medical Examiner's office is working on numerous tests, including a paternity test and Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. |
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