AN EMOTIONALLY charged memorial service was held yesterday for a woman whose severed head and hands were found on a beach.
About 200 people attended the service at Arbroath, Angus, just yards from the area where Jolanta Bledaite's remains were found.
Bledaite, 35, came from Alytus, in Lithuania, and was working in Brechin in Angus.
Two young sisters playing on the
beach found her head in a plastic bag on April 1 and her hands were discovered nearby shortly afterwards. Police recovered a suitcase containing further body parts from Arbroath harbour on April 5.
Two men have been charged with Bledaite's murder.
Yesterday's service took the form of a Roman Catholic mass, conducted by the Reverend Kevin Golden, priest of St Thomas RC church in Dishlandtown Street, Arbroath.
A number of people wept during the hour-long service, which featured hymns accompanied by bagpipe music.
Mourners gathered around a small table on which sat a framed black-and-white photograph of Bledaite, a crucifix and a collection of pebbles from her grandmother's garden in Lithuania.
The minister said: "We celebrate today the meaning and value of Jolanta's all too short life. Let us be united in heart and spirit with her beloved family. Let us pray for those who have left their homeland that they be protected from danger."
After the service the pebbles were blessed and then scattered on the beach.
A number of dignitaries from Eastern Europe attended – including Lithuanian ambassador Vygaueas Usackas – as well as the police officer who has led the investigation into her death, Detective Chief Inspector Graham McMillan.
Usackas said: "I wanted to attend today to extend my warmest thanks on behalf of all the people of Lithuania for the sympathy and moral and financial support received.
"It is hard to imagine how such a thing could have happened in this wonderful place. I met with the family in Lithuania just yesterday and they are as moved as I am about what people have done here in Arbroath."
The service was organised by Arbroath woman Sue Smith, who has worked closely with the area's migrant community in recent years and who recently returned from a visit to Bledaite's family in Lithuania.
She said: "It was a lovely service and I am just so happy that everyone turned up."
Vaidas Dieninis, 28, who is from Lithuania and currently working in Arbroath, did not know Bledaite but wanted to pay respects. He said: "It was a very good service and I really appreciate that it was done."
Jean Dear, 70, from Arbroath, said: "What's happened has just left everybody shattered."
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