10 h, jun 16, 1994 y - Funeral for Nicole Brown Simpson

Description:

Funeral of Nicole Brown Simpson was held at a private residence in Brentwood, California

A funeral service was also held at St. Martin's Church in Brentwood, California.

O.J. ATTENDS FUNERAL SERVICE FOR FORMER WIFE SIMPSON'S BLOOD SAID TO MATCH TYPE AT SCENE By FROM NEWS WIRE SERVICES BUSINESS, STAFF REPORTER CAROLYN RAEKE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE., June 16, 1994

"O.J. Simpson and his children attended today's funeral for his ex-wife as evidence reportedly builds linking the former football star to the brutal slayings of her and a friend.

Wearing a black suit, Simpson entered St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Brentwood for Nicole Brown Simpson's private service. With him were their daughter Sydney, 9, and son Justin, 6. Nothing was said by the family as they entered the church.

Earlier, at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks cemetery some 20 miles to the northwest, family and friends gathered to bury Ronald L. Goldman, who died along with Ms. Simpson late Sunday.

The Los Angeles Times reported today that the blood type of samples recovered at the scene of a double slaying matches that of O.J. Simpson's blood, a potentially important piece of evidence in the investigation of the killings.

The former Buffalo Bills running back's blood type is different from those of the two victims, a Los Angeles Police Department source said.

A Philadelphia radio station, however, today quoted Los Angeles Police Chief Willie Williams, who was visiting the city, as saying police still had no primary suspect in the slayings. He said he did not believe the Police Department was responsible for most of the news leaks about the probe.

Although even rare blood types are shared by many people, any discovery of Simpson's blood type at the murder scene could lend credence to the suggestion that he was there, sources said. A more exact test to determine whether the DNA in the blood sample matches Simpson's has not yet been concluded, sources added. Such tests can take two months or more.

Simpson's lead attorney, newly hired lawyer Robert L. Shapiro, was unavailable to comment on the reports of the bloodstains.

Howard Weitzman, who represented Simpson until Wednesday and continues to serve as an adviser to his legal team, said he was unaware of any test results concluding that Simpson's blood type matched samples recovered from the scene.

Although sources have said Simpson is the main suspect in the investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department has declined to confirm those reports, and Simpson has not been arrested, much less charged with any crime.

New details emerged Wednesday about a matching pair of gloves whose existence Weitzman vehemently has denied. According to police sources, investigators found two work gloves, one at the scene of the crime and the other outside Simpson's Brentwood mansion. Both had blood on them, though tests for the blood on the gloves still have not been completed, sources said. According to one source, the glove at Simpson's home was found outside a side entrance near a trail of drippings that have been determined to be blood.

"That would be inconsistent with what I was told," said Weitzman, who has said a police official assured him that there was no second glove found at Simpson's home. "Beyond that, I have no comment."

Earlier Wednesday, Shapiro had said his client was elsewhere at the time of the slayings and said Simpson is under treatment for depression.

"He is deeply upset," said Shapiro, one of Los Angeles' best-known lawyers, whom Simpson retained early Wednesday. "He is under a doctor's care for depression. . . .He is going to be in seclusion with his family to grieve over the loss of the mother of his children."

In a brief statement released after he took over the case, Shapiro said Simpson was at his Brentwood home waiting for a limousine when Ms. Simpson and Goldman were killed Sunday night. Police have not revealed the exact time of the slayings, believed to have occurred between 9:45 p.m. Sunday and 12:10 a.m. Monday.

Simpson traveled to Los Angeles Airport, about a 20-minute drive from his estate, late Sunday and caught an 11:45 p.m. American Airlines flight to Chicago. A source said he was the only passenger to travel in the first-class section.

But the Boston Globe reported today that Howard Bingham, a photographer for former boxing champion Muhammed Ali and a longtime friend of Simpson, had said he was on the same plane and that Simpson had shown no sign of distress when the two chatted before, during and after the flight.

"He came up to me before we got on the plane to talk," Bingham told the Globe's correspondent in Los Angeles. "I just talked to him like always. Nothing seemed different about him. . . . I shook hands with him in the airport and Chicago. He seemed like always. This whole thing is unbelievable."

Detectives questioned the limousine driver and searched the car, KABC-TV reported.

In Chicago, TV stations reported that Los Angeles police were in Chicago and planned to meet with investigators there today.

The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported today that a review of city records and court documents revealed a brutal side of the former football superstar who, in one fight, hit Ms. Simpson hard enough to blacken her left eye and split her lip.

In police reports from 1989, Ms. Simpson indicated she feared her husband and had called police multiple times for help because of physical arguments with the former Heisman Trophy winner, a city official said.

One of those calls led to a charge of spousal abuse, which Simpson later resolved by pleading no contest to a charge of battery.

According to the records, detailed by Deputy District Attorney Bill Sterling, police went to the Simpson home in Brentwood at 3 a.m. on New Year's Day 1989 to respond to a 911 call about a beating. A housekeeper refused to let them enter the gated home, but, within seconds, police saw Ms. Simpson, wearing a bra and sweatpants, running toward them.

"He's going to kill me," Ms. Simpson told police, according to the report. Officers reported that she clung to one officer and had a cut, swollen lip, a blackened left eye, swelling and bruises on her neck and face and a redden imprint of a hand across her neck, Sterling said the records show.

Simpson came out of the house and argued that the officers should leave, according to the police report.

He told officers he had ordered his wife out of his bed and indicated that he was surprised to see that she was injured from their fight, Sterling said, reviewing the records. City attorneys had asked that Simpson be jailed for 30 days "because it was a serious enough incident and included serious allegations of past abuse that warranted it," said Sterling.

According to those records, Simpson served no time in jail but was sentenced to two years, probation and 120 hours of community service and was required to give $500 to a Santa Monica shelter for battered women.

Los Angeles police discovered the slaying victims after midnight and called Simpson at his Chicago hotel Monday morning to tell him that his former wife had been found dead. Simpson, who made a number of phone calls from the hotel, returned to Los Angeles that morning and was questioned by police the same day.

Goldman's family, meanwhile, held an emotional news conference Wednesday outside their home in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles. Goldman was a waiter at a Brentwood restaurant and, his friends said, a frequent companion of Simpson's ex-wife.

On the evening he was killed, he had gone to her house to return a pair of glasses that someone in her party had left at the restaurant.

"Ron was a special human being who didn't deserve what's happened," said Goldman's father, Fred, as his wife wiped tears from his face."

Sourced from:
The Buffalo News

https://buffalonews.com/news/o-j-attends-funeral-service-for-former-wife-simpsons-blood-said-to-match-type-at/article_3a720ba9-f7b6-5185-86ae-b6a1cd56fab9.html

Added to timeline:

Date:

Images: