Children Who Died In Chest Mourned By Hundreds

Hundreds of mourners filled a Franklin church to mourn the loss of two children who died after being trapped in a hope chest.

Rev. Cannon Robert Edmunds said at the funeral at St. Mary Church in Franklin on Monday that 8-year-old Lexi Munroe and her brother, 7-year-old Sean Munroe, did nothing wrong. They were just playing.

The Boston Globe reported that he said the joy of children is to use God's gift of playing, imagination and exploration.

Edmunds is priest-in-charge of St. John's Episcopal Church near Franklin. He said the mourners' grief is overwhelming and their sense of loss is beyond words.

Authorities say the children became trapped Jan. 12 in the chest that had been recalled because it could only be opened from the outside. The deaths have been ruled accidental.