Memorial service honors life of 5-year-old Halifax County murder victim

Inside a small country church, a community shared its grief Sunday.

They mourned for a child who loved basketball and Spiderman. A boy named Christian, laid to rest in a tiny casket.

"Death has come suddenly and unexpectedly, to painfully tear one of our loved ones from us," Reverend Dennis King told family and friends assembled at Rocky Mount Baptist Church in Skipwith.

Christian's father invited WDBJ7 to cover the service. He wanted us to show that while his son's life was short, it was full of meaning and purpose."

"Though death has tragically separated Christian from you, part of him will still live on with you forever," KIng said during the child's eulogy.

He was remembered as Christian Antoine Dotson, a last name that belongs to his father.

In life he was known as Christian Sydnor, a name shared by his mother Tonja. She's charged along with another man of killing Christian, who died Monday of what a medical examiner called "blunt force trauma to the head."

"Amid our pain, we desire to pay tribute to a short life," King told mourners during Sunday's "home-going service," a ceremony that celebrated the things Christian cherished.

"He loved playing football and basketball and his favorite color was red," said a woman who read from Christian's obituary during the service.

Christian was laid to rest outside the church where his memorial was held. It's a church attended by members of his father's family, who say they will cherish the memories shared during Christian's service while they await justice for his death.