Low-key funeral service for man in 'suicide pact'

FIFTY people gathered for a funeral service yesterday to mourn the loss of a man who apparently killed himself in a suicide pact with a woman he had met through a website.

By The Newsroom

Published 6th Oct 2010, 00:03 BST

Lorry driver Stephen Lumb, 35, drove 200 miles from the home he shared with his father Melvyn in Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, to Essex to meet Joanne Lee, 34, to whom he had only spoken via the internet.

The pair were found dead in a Vauxhall Astra parked alongside an area of overgrown wasteland on an industrial estate in Braintree, Essex, on September 20. They had gassed themselves after meeting only hours earlier.

Yesterday friends and family gathered for a low-key service for Mr Lumb which saw no floral tributes in the hearse containing his coffin and just a solitary bouquet carried by his father.

The short funeral was held at St Paul's Methodist Church, yards away from the family home.

The Rev Francis Neil led the 20-minute ceremony and paid tribute to Mr Lumb. "Although we may not understand why he did what he did, we should remember the positives of his life," he said.