Field hockey sticks line casket's exit at Amanda Strous' funeral
The funeral for Strous, 27, a 2007 graduate of Dallastown Area High School and a former standout field hockey player at Shippensburg University, was held on Saturday.
Shippensburg University field hockey, Danielle Hull said, is a “tight-knit community.” Everyone is there to support one another.
Hull, who played from 2005 to 2008, was among several former Shippensburg field hockey players who on Saturday came out to Aldersgate United Methodist Church in York Township to honor the memory of Amanda Strous.
"She was someone you could always count on,” said Hull, 29, of Gardners, a physician assistant who also coached Strous in 2009. "She was just full of life."
Strous, a 2007 graduate of Dallastown Area High School and a standout field hockey forward at Shippensburg, was killed June 18 after a fire was set in her apartment in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was 27.
Before her death, Strous was working as a student counselor at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte. She was set to be married July 30.
On Monday, law enforcement in Nye County, Nevada, arrested a man, 28, who lived in the same apartment complex as Strous. He has been charged with murder and arson.
During a public visitation, a line twice wrapped around the inside of the church. At one point, more than 75 people were waiting to get in.
The private funeral service was set to start at 11 a.m. At about 1 p.m., a large crowd gathered outside.
Field hockey players formed an arch with their sticks. Then, people released more than a dozen purple balloons into the sky.