NIU shooting victim will be buried in Q-C area

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By Kay Luna | Monday, February 18, 2008 9:07 PM CST | () comments

Daniel L. Parmenter, 20, of Westchester, Ill. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

One of the victims who died in the Northern Illinois University shooting rampage last week has family ties in the Quad-City area and will be buried Wednesday in Rock Island County.

The grandfather of NIU student Daniel L. Parmenter, 20, of Westchester, Ill., lives in Taylor Ridge, where funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Taylor Ridge Methodist Church, a church official said Monday night.

Burial will follow immediately at Chapel Grove Cemetery near Milan.

Not only are Parmenter’s grandfather and father, Gary Parmenter, both from the Taylor Ridge area, but his older sister — Kristen Parmenter — graduated from Augustana College in Rock Island as well, said Anthony Rainiero, the funeral director at Hursen Funeral Home in Hillside, Ill.

“Some of her friends from Augustana have sent some things up here,” he said from the suburban Chicago funeral home where visitation was held Monday.

He said the profound sadness in the eyes of hundreds of people who attended the visitation was amazing to see, and he has been in the funeral business for more than 20 years.

“We’ve had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people in line since 2:30 this afternoon,” Rainiero added.

The first of two funerals for Parmenter will be at 2 p.m. today at Christ Church in Oak Brook, Ill., with his second funeral and final resting place in the Quad-City area.

Parmenter was one of five victims who died when a shooter, former NIU graduate student Steve Kazmierczak, 27, burst into a campus auditorium filled with about 150 students Thursday afternoon, which was Valentine’s Day. The shooter killed five and injured 15 others before turning a gun on himself. He died at the scene.

The list of survivors in Parmenter’s obituary includes his father; his mother, Linda (Robert) Greer; his sister, Kristen; grandfathers Russell Parmenter and Hans Blohm; and an aunt, three uncles and several cousins.

The Associated Press reported Monday that Parmenter’s girlfriend, NIU student Lauren Debrauwere of Barrington, Ill., was sitting next to him in class when the shooting happened. She was injured and is recovering in a Chicago hospital. (An article about her appears on page A3.)

For more information about the services for Parmenter, call the funeral home at (800) 562-0082 or go online to hursen.com.

Kay Luna can be contacted (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com.