MAYBEE, MI — A rural community in Monroe County, after holding its breath for months, came together to exhale Tuesday.
Since 22-year-old Chelsea Bruck disappeared following a Halloween party in October, her mother, sisters, relatives, friends and neighbors worked tirelessly, worried ceaselessly and clung desperately to fading hope the young woman would return home safely.
The tragic truth was learned Saturday when Monroe County sheriff’s deputies, who spent thousands of hours searching for her, confirmed the body of a woman found in wooded area of nearby Carleton Friday was Bruck.
Monroe County Sheriff Dale Malone called her death a homicide but said the full autopsy won’t be completed for weeks.
As the sun set Tuesday, hundreds gathered in a field by a pavilion and horseshoe pits behind the St. Joseph’s Church in Maybee and lit candles.
In a village with just over 500 residents, its seemed most were there.
A several-feet-high photo of Bruck, her smile beaming, was attached to a wooden cross, purple bows on the front and back.
The purple ribbons, Brucks’ favorite color, were everywhere throughout the small town and handed out at the vigil for residents to place on their doors in remembrance.
Bruck’s sisters, Kassandra and Megan Bruck; mother, Leanndra Bruck; and others took turns speaking from atop a makeshift wooden stage in the center of the grass.