Karen Winteringham remembered during candlelight vigil

About 75 people gathered for a candlelight vigil in Central Park in memory of Karen Winteringham. (Menifee 24/7 photos)

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Family, church friends and community members gathered in Central Park Sunday night to celebrate the life of Karen Winteringham.

Winteringham, 66, was a focus of the Menifee community for three weeks as residents and loved ones searched the area following her disappearance from a home in the Sun City community on Aug. 4. Then last Friday, the Riverside County Coroner identified a body found three days earlier in an undeveloped rural area of Perris as that of the missing woman.

Police said there was no evidence of foul play. Family members said Winteringham, who suffered from dementia and other medical problems, apparently left her home that morning to take a walk, as she often did in the community. She lived with her husband Tim in the 26000 block of Mehaffey Street, near the Menifee-Perris border.

"Whether you knew Miss Karen as family, whether she was your neighbor, or whether you met her and fell in love with her ... I just thank all of you for being here," said Amy Mahaffey, one of the residents who organized the search. "When we couldn't find her, we were distraught, and it still hurts. But we knew she was in the hands of the Lord. We have a guardian angel now in Miss Karen, guiding us."

In addition to family members, many of the approximately 75 people who attended the candlelight vigil were members of the Men and Women on the Move for Christ Ministry, which Winteringham attended in Hemet. Members of the church choir, in which Karen sang soprano, celebrated her memory in song during the vigil and the entire crowd sang “Amazing Grace.”

"Karen was the sweetest spirit you will ever meet. Just genuinely sweet, genuinely kind, genuinely caring," said pastor Gerri Marsden. "We talked about this one time. You don't often meet genuine people who, when they tell you they love you, they really mean they love you unconditionally. She was the kindest person I've ever met in my life. And could she sing!"

Bishop Charles Johnson said it was rare to find such a genuine person as Karen Winteringham.

"She's a real person, always," he said. "Whenever you saw her, she always brought a smile to your face. She never had an unkind thing to say to anybody. When we heard this was going on, we had to be here. We put the word out yesterday that we had to go out and support the family."

The gathering included Winteringham’s daughter, Andrea Simpson, and son, Andre, in addition to her sister, Tina Johnson, and her granddaughter Maki Smith. Along with many of the other family members, Karen’s young granddaughter Aliyah said a few words about her grandmother as well.

The City of Menifee was represented by Mayor Bill Zimmerman; Mayor Pro Tem Lesa Sobek; City Council member Bob Karwin; and Chief Pat Walsh, Captain Dave Gutierrez and Lt. Denise Keith of the Menifee Police Department.

"A lot of us are meeting each other for the first time," Karwin said. "Folks have come a long way, some of the family have traveled a long way to be here, merging with the people of our community. There's one reason we all got to be a part of each other's lives tonight, and that's Karen. In life or death, Karen brings people together. I'm so honored she chose our community to live in, and now her legacy is bringing folks together here, and we'll continue that memory."

Guests placed candles next to flowers and a portrait of Karen Winteringham during the candlelight vigil.

 

Members of Karen's church choir, of which she was a member, sing in remembrance of her.