Article taken from The Gainesville Sun Newspaper
4 July 1992 written by Lisa Fisher Sun Correspondent

Family buries MacFarlane amid mystery

Judy MacFarlanes family cried when the reverend stepped down from the podium to present her mother with an American flag at Saturday morning's funeral. It honored the 30-year-old's 8 ½ years of service in the U.S. Army and National Reserve.

Afterward, at the flower-covered gravesite, MacFarlane's sister Jeanette Scott remembered that scene. "That was the most difficult moment for me. It tore me up."

But there will be even harder moments, the family stressed, since they are not reconciled to the mystery left by MacFarlane's death.

MacFarlane disappeared January 13th after a service at United Pentecostal Church on NW 39th Avenue. Sheriff's reports showed she had refused a ride home and was walking in the rain picking flowers when she was last seen.

Her family and friends all said they believed something bad had happened to her. They complained publicly that the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, which had organized massive searches involving hundreds of volunteers when college students Tiffany Sessions and Beth Foster vanished, were virtually ignoring MacFarlane's case.

Investigators countered that since she had disappeared once before and had cashed a check for about $300 that day, leaving her four children with a cousin, circumstances suggested she may have left on her own. They said they did more work in MacFarlane's case than in most missing persons cases.

Then June 26, a Department of Transportation worker found MacFarlane's body in a north Gainesville retention pond, three-quarters of a mile from her home.

But the mystery did not end with the discovery. Nature had worked hard to reclaim her earthly remains in the months of MacFarlane's watery concealment. An autopsy failed to determine the cause of her death. If she was murdered, investigators may have a hard time proving it.

About 120 people filled the Williams-Thomas Chapel of the Chimes on N. Main Street to comfort MacFarlane's family and say goodbye to the young mother pictured with her four children at the front of the chapel. Then they companied her family to the gravesite at Newnansville Cemetery just outside the Alachua city limits.

"I see some people weeping, " said United Pentecostal Church, Rev. J. W. Arnold. "But that's okay. I'm worried about a society so stoic and in control that they can't cry."

At the gravesite, MacFarlane's accomplishments were the main topic of conversation, not the circumstances surrounding her death.

"Use life to get prepared, "Rev. Arnold said. "Find God in life because without this, there is no sense. Judy found He was real. Follow the steps she was trying to walk."

And after the tears there came laughs and smiles. People took pictures and videotaped friends and family they might not see again for a long time marking the end of a seven- month wait for Judy MacFarlane.

MacFarlane's sister Nancy Brewer reminisced about her pretty, brunette sister, who graduated from Santa Fe Community College last spring with high grades in industrial maintenance. She recounted how MacFarlane received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army after serving 2 ½ years. She also served in the National Reserves for six years and received her pilot's license a few years ago.

Children including MacFarlane's daughter, Melissa, and son, Michael, ran around the gravesite, playing in the dirt and hanging out of car windows. "Her hobby was her children," Scott said. MacFarlane left the military when she became pregnant with her first son, and Scott stressed how her sister was a strong person who loved her children.

But her family also addressed the unease they still feel regarding the way the sheriff's office handled MacFarlane's case and how news reports have pictured the 30-year-old.

"Do you know how this is affecting my daughter?" asked MacFarlane's grandmother, Estelle Jeanette Beckham. MacFarlane's mother, Shirley Scott, never stopped crying throughout the funeral and burial service. Beckham said she did not like how news stories have consistently talked about the circumstances surrounding her granddaughter's death instead of describing MacFarlane herself.

MacFarlane's brother-in-law Robert Norris says his goal for the future is to make sure what happened to MacFarlane never happens again.

He admits having strong doubts about law enforcements' handling of the case. "Maybe if she were still in school it might have made a difference," Norris said. "We went through places even a rabbit wouldn't go." But no one unlocked the fence to the pond where MacFarlane was found, and it is that lack of concern and effort that makes Norris think the same thing could happen to another unsuspecting person, like MacFarlane.

We didn't cry wolf. We're not going to let this rest," he said.

Note from a family member, Barbara Wilson Krause as of 21 September 2009. Judy, left four children, Melissa the youngest about a year old, James about 7, Christopher 5 years old and Michael 4 years old. James, Christopher and Michael were adopted by a wonderful couple in Canada. Melissa was adopted by a family member. They all are doing well. The Lord is good always.
Note: To this day 24 April 2015 the mystery of her death has not been solved.