Kevin Jenkins

kevin@thespectrum.com

Santa Clara resident David Heisler received a final welcome home Friday, nearly four months after he disappeared from his house in an alleged kidnapping incident and two months after his body was discovered in the remote wilderness north of the Grand Canyon National Park.

“Mariah’s Army is here in full force,” Shepherd of the Hills Methodist Church Rev. Michael Chamness told a crowd gathered at the Serenity Funeral Home in St. George shortly after 6 p.m. as the hearse bearing Heisler’s remains arrived from his Santa Clara home.

Mariah, Heisler’s 6-year-old daughter, was accompanied by her grandparents Ken and Debbie, who were awarded custody of her after the girl’s mother, Kelley Marie Perry, was named among the three people suspected of spiriting him away from his home after a violent altercation June 27.

“(Mariah) has lots of people that love her and just really want to see her get through it and not turn into a victim because of it,” Debbie said after the crowd prayed with Chamness and released a sea of teal-colored balloons matching their T-shirts.

“She’s never been through a funeral or anything like this, so this has all been a challenge to explain and to help her through. But she understands the magnitude of what’s happened,” Debbie said, adding that her granddaughter is going through counseling.

“(The community response) has been incredibly overwhelming. If you look tonight, it’s just one person caring after another,” she said.

David Heisler's body to return Friday; federal charges likely

A procession led by a Santa Clara-Ivins police cruiser arrived at the funeral home with about a dozen close family members and friends trailing behind, greeted by a far greater number of well-wishers wearing the teal-colored “Mariah’s Army” T-shirts that have come to identify family supporters at public events.

A state anthropologist in Arizona has been investigating Heisler’s remains since August for any clue as to how he died. Primary suspect Frank Lee McCard, 55, reportedly led police investigators to a location where he said he left Heisler in the Arizona Strip desert miles from any home.

Heisler’s body was eventually located about four miles away along one of the dirt roads criss-crossing the region after weeks of intense heat, leading to questions about whether he had attempted to walk toward rescue, but investigators have also been curious about a bullet casing found in Heisler’s abandoned car that allegedly matches a bullet found in Perry’s bedroom.

Such questions were far from the dialogue Friday evening as Heisler’s family and friends hugged and chatted together.

Debbie said she hopes Heisler will be remembered as someone who did “whatever it took to take care of his daughter,” and that his story will help save anyone from having to go through a similar experience.

“Domestic violence is an ugly subject, and for somebody to have died tragically from it really touches so many people,” she said. “And they’ve all reached out to me. I’ve heard from so many people – their stories – and somebody has to make a difference.”

Remains of David Heisler turned over to anthropologist

Debbie was referring to the allegations that Perry’s distress over seeing permanent custody of Mariah awarded to Heisler is what drove her boyfriend, McCard, to spearhead Heisler’s abduction with help from Perry and the couple’s landlord, Washington City resident Tammy Renee Freeman, 54.

Cori Whitney said she helped organize the first search utilizing Facebook and fliers that were distributed as far away as Mesquite and Las Vegas.

“It covered a lot of area. Groups went to Beaver Dam and Littlefield, out in Arizona, along Old Highway 91,” she said. “(We were) trying to find a car or something, just to help him come home.”

Letitia Boone said she’d known Heisler about four years and was part of a group of people that would get together for barbecues and friendship.

“He’s just a wonderful person,” she said.

Boone and Whitney remembered Heisler as someone who really enjoyed video games, basketball and football.

“He loved his football,” Whitney said. “He was the funnest person for football season because you can just talk trash with him. He liked the Giants, so it was easy to talk trash.”

Debbie said Mariah has “turned into a blessed child” because of the concern so many people have shown her. In an effort to bless others, the family will launch a Teddy Bear drive for the holidays, dressing the stuffed bears in tiny Mariah’s Army T-shirts and donating them to Toys For Tots.

“We would like to see those things go to people who need them,” she said. “We’re going to do something absolutely fun for Christmas to try to bring a different perspective to Christmas for us. … We’re going to make sure that other children benefit.”

Follow reporter Kevin Jenkins on Twitter, @SpectrumJenkins. Call him at 435-674-6253.