The Ohio hometown of Otto Warmbier, who died last week after his return from 17 months in detention in North Korea, gathered at the 22-year-old's alma mater Thursday to bid him farewell.
Around 2,500 somber well-wishers waited in two lines outside Wyoming High School's arts center for his funeral, which lasted roughly 45 minutes. The auditorium in this Cincinnati suburb can hold just 800 people, so most attendees watched the service on monitors in overflow rooms.
Inside the arts center, mourners were met with a display of belongings Warmbier took with him on what was supposed to be a five-day excursion to North Korea. They included his wallet, running and boat shoes, a University of Virginia notebook, a scientific calculator, a reusable grocery bag and the crumpled linen blazer he wore while there.
- The funeral included a display of belongings Otto Warmbier took with him while traveling abroad.
Among the speakers at the funeral were Warmbier's brother, Austin, his sister, Greta, and some of his friends, according to the funeral program. Also in attendance was US Ambassador Joseph Yun, the special representative for North Korea policy, who helped secure Warmbier's release.
The front of the funeral program featured a quote from Warmbier's 2013 salutatorian speech: "This is our season finale. This is the end of one great show, but just the beginning to hundreds of new spinoffs."
Warmbier returned to the United States last week in a coma, only to die six days after his arrival. North Korean officials say Warmbier contracted botulism and slipped into a coma after taking a sleeping pill.
His official cause of death is unknown, as his parents declined to have an autopsy conducted on their son.
What an autopsy may have revealed :
- "It would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that we lost -- future time that won't be spent with a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds," Fred and Cindy Warmbier said in a statement.
- "We choose to 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."