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Mexican Farm Town Buries 3 of 9 Slain Americans

Associated Press

   LA MORA, MEXICO - With Mexican soldiers standing guard, a mother and
   two sons were carried to their grave in hand-hewn pine coffins Thursday
   at the first funeral for the victims of a drug cartel ambush that left
   nine American women and children dead.
   About 500 mourners embraced in grief under white tents erected in La
   Mora, a hamlet of about 300 people who consider themselves Mormon but
   are not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
   Saints. Some wept, and some sang hymns.
   Members of the extended community -- many of whom, like the victims,
   are dual U.S.-Mexican citizens -- had built the coffins themselves, and
   used shovels to dig a single, large grave for the three in the rocky
   soil of La Mora's small cemetery. Farmers and teenage boys carried the
   coffins.
   The coffins were placed on low tables, and mourners filed past to pay
   their last respects to Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and her sons Trevor, 11,
   and Rogan, 2.
   They were to be buried together, just as they died together Monday when
   attackers shot at their SUV on a dirt road leading to another
   settlement, ColoniaLeBaron, in neighboring Chihuahua state. Six
   children and three women in all were killed in the attack on the convoy
   of three SUVs.

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