Newark undertaker shaken by task
The funeral director knew one of the victims of last month's execution-style schoolyard slayings.
ORANGE, N.J. - As a funeral director near Newark, N.J., Kenneth Cattenhead encounters violent death all too frequently.
But few deaths, he said, touched him as deeply as that of Iofemi Hightower, one of four young victims of the execution-style schoolyard shootings that shook Newark last month.
Cattenhead was particularly haunted by the shootings because he had met the 20-year-old Hightower only months earlier at her aunt's funeral, at which he also officiated.
"She was a sweet person, a sharp dresser," he said. "She was just happy, with a nice attitude and a friendly smile."
Hightower had attended the funeral with a friend, Terrance Aeriel, 18. They and another friend, 20-year-old Dashon Harvey, were killed in the Aug. 4 shootings. Aeriel's 19-year-old sister, Natasha, was shot but survived.
Cattenhead had no way of knowing that three months after meeting Hightower, he would be called on to try to restore her friendly face so that her family could see her one last time. Doing that would be no easy task.
Hightower and her friends were forced to kneel near a wall, then shot in the back of their heads. Hightower was also slashed in the face with a machete, authorities said.
Cattenhead, 35, got a call from Hightower's family the day after the shootings. The funeral would be the next Saturday, and he knew he had an important job to do.
"When I heard the details, my heart started racing. I didn't want anything to go wrong," he said, explaining that his work entails stitching, makeup, wax, "and a lot of prayer."
In all, he spent a dozen hours over four days to prepare Hightower's body for the open-casket funeral.
"Everything was beautiful. He did a beautiful job," said Hightower's mother, Shalga Hightower.
Cattenhead said she had given him the ultimate compliment for a funeral director when she told him that her daughter looked as if she were sleeping.
Cattenhead said he could see the impact of Hightower's wounds.
He said he wouldn't easily forget her funeral because of the violent nature of her death.
Three men and three juveniles have been arrested in the slayings.
Authorities have said robbery appeared to be the motive. All four victims were planning to attend Delaware State University this fall.
"If I could send them to hell, I would," Cattenhead said of the suspects. "Good people shouldn't die tragically."