A funeral was held on Thursday for Otto Warmbier, the American student who was slaughtered by the heinous North Korean regime, and hordes of people turned out for it.
The memorial service took place at the Wyoming High School arts center in Wyoming, OH, which was Warmbier’s hometown, located in the Cincinnati area. An estimated 2,500 people showed up for the funeral; a number of people had to watch it in overflow rooms since the venue was designed to only hold 800 people. Another 100 people had to be turned away.
Here was the front of the program for Warmbier’s funeral:
Warmbier’s parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, said in a statement that the funeral would “focus on the time we were given to be with this remarkable person.”
“You can tell from the outpouring of emotion from the communities that he touched — Wyoming, Ohio, and the University of Virginia to name just two — that the love for Otto went well beyond his immediate family,” Warmbier’s parents said.
Indeed, friends and family who spoke at the funeral described Warmbier as an intelligent, warm and kind-hearted individual. One friend, Andrew Kraner, said that Warmbier “was the nicest kid.” Cynthia Meis, Wyoming High School’s director of college counseling, said that Warmbier “was going to set the world on fire, which is why this loss is so profound.”
When the service ended, mourners lined up to watch Warmbier’s casket head toward the cemetery for burial:
Sen. Robert Portman (R-OH), who attended the funeral, had this to say to the media: (H/T: Fox News)
“This process has been an example of evil and love and good,” Ohio Sen. Rob Portman told reporters outside the service, Fox 19 reported. “This community and country have come together who are holding this family up in prayer.”
He added: “We have also seen evil. He should’ve never been detained. The North Koreans need to be held accountable for that. They have demonstrated that they have no respect for the rule of law and they showed a lack of respect for basic human dignity and rights. The fact that they didn’t tell his parents after he became ill is atrocious. Today is not a day to only focus on that.”
Warmbier was arrested by the North Korean regime in 2016 for allegedly stealing a North Korea propaganda poster for his church at home, a story that was clearly bogus given that Warmbier considered himself to be Jewish. He was sentenced to 15 years of labor after giving a confession that was obviously coerced, although the tears he shed during it were likely genuine. When Warmbier was released by the North Korean regime earlier in June, he was brain-dead. Warmbier passed away on Monday.
The promising future of a young man was snuffed out by a murderous, evil regime. May his memory be a blessing.