Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Britney, Amber and Morgan Sims: In their hearts
More than 100 people gathered for a vigil to the slain Alleghany Co. girls.
Photos by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times
Alleghany High softball players mourn Tuesday the loss of teammate Britney Sims and her two sisters, who were killed by their father over the weekend.
The playing of Eric Clapton's 'Tears in Heaven' was part of the candlelight vigil in Alleghany County Tuesday for the three Sims girls.
Photo gallery
Guest book
Donations
A memorial fund has been set up to help cover funeral costs and other expenses for the family of Morgan, Britney and Amber Sims.
Send donations to:
Highlands Community Bank
c/o Karen Sims
1501 Main St.
Clifton Forge, VA 24422
Mark donations: Memorial fund for three daughters
Map
COVINGTON -- On the high school softball field, Britney Sims was quite the competitor.
She and Hollee Warlitner, who played varsity softball together at Alleghany High School, would always kid each other: Which of them was going to hit the most home runs? Who would hit them the farthest? Who could round the bases the fastest?
Britney was also among the first to congratulate Hollee when she was named player of the year for the Blue Ridge District. And when Jennifer Simpson hit her first home run at a state tournament this summer, Britney seemed as happy as if she had swung the bat.
"She just came up to me and jumped on me and gave me the biggest hug ever," said Jennifer, 16. "She didn't care if someone else got it."
Britney's teammates, wearing red, white and blue tie-dyed "Lady Mounties" team shirts, gathered with more than 100 other people in the rain Tuesday evening to remember Britney and her two younger sisters. The three girls were killed by their father over the weekend in an act of murder-suicide that, by all accounts, no one saw coming.
Teenage girls in softball jerseys huddled at an amphitheater in Covington, holding flickering candles or clinging to one another and sobbing as they listened to Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven."
"Yesterday we were dealing with shock," county school Superintendent Robert Grimesey said earlier in the day. "Today we're dealing with grief."
It was the second candlelight vigil in two days for Britney, 17, and her sisters Amber, 14, an eighth-grader at Clifton Middle School, and Morgan, 8, a third-grader at Mountain View Elementary School. More than 100 people attended a vigil Monday at Alleghany High School.
Softball coach Danny Keene gave the girls' mother, Karen Sims, Britney's softball uniform and Amber's middle school basketball uniform so the girls could wear them when they're buried.
"That was their life," Keene said of the sports the two girls played. "You always put academics in front of sports -- in their case, sports were equal to academics."
Late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, Edward F. Sims Jr. shot each of his daughters once in the head with a .380-caliber handgun as they slept in their home in the Potts Creek community of Alleghany County, using a pillow to muffle the shots. Then he committed suicide.
A deputy sheriff found the four bodies Monday morning after Karen Sims asked authorities to check on the family. She had left her husband about a week earlier and moved to Clifton Forge.
The sudden bloodshed seemed to surprise everyone, from Edward Sims' mother to friends of the family to the investigators.
Sheriff Dale Muterspaugh reinforced Tuesday that investigators had not determined what prompted the killings and said Sims had not left a note.
"I wish we did know more that would make sense out of what happened," the sheriff said.
Edward Sims' mother, Sharon Sims, said: "They were going through a rough patch. I know he loved his girls. I just don't know why he did it."
Jack Gentry, who worked with Sims at a lumber company in Clifton Forge, called Sims a "regular guy who rarely had a bad day and never seemed to lose his temper.
"He was more of a clown and a happy guy than getting angry or anything like that," Gentry said. "What happened is just not fitting with the guy."
Visitation services for the Sims girls will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. today at Nicely Funeral Home at 405 Alleghany St. in Clifton Forge.
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Mountain View Cemetery, also in Clifton Forge.
Edward Sims' parents planned to have his body cremated and hold services at a later date in Mathews.
Staff writer Amanda Codispoti contributed to this report.
