Howard Woman, 3 Children Mourned

Relatives and friends crowded a historic Frederick church yesterday to mourn for a mother and three children, killed on Thanksgiving Day by an ex-husband and father who police say then fatally shot himself.

The four white coffins of Gail Pumphrey, 43, and the children, David, 12, Megan, 10, and Brandon Brockdorff, 6, were decorated with flowers, balloons and photographs. Banners and cards created by classmates of the children filled the stately old church, Evangelical Lutheran.

Little mention was made of David P. Brockdorff, 40, who police say murdered his family during a custody handoff required under the terms of the couple's bitterly contested divorce. But the church's executive pastor, the Rev. Albert K. Lane, pondered the forces that had ended five lives.

"We have stared at evil. It is encompassing us. Domestic violence is awful. We cannot answer every question we are feeling today," he said.

Police are preparing an official report on the incident, one of the deadliest shootings in Montgomery County's history. They found the bodies of the mother and children in two cars in isolated Unity Neighborhood Park in rural Damascus. They say Brockdorff, an electrical contractor, shot them, then walked 100 feet into the brush and turned the .22-caliber rifle on himself. He left no note.

In tributes read by ministers yesterday, Pumphrey was described as a devoted mother, loving sister and "faithful soul." She worked for 19 years as a flight attendant, most recently for US Airways, said the Rev. David G. Oravec, senior pastor, who addressed some of his comments to her many uniformed airline colleagues in attendance.

"Can you imagine all the fussy children and grumpy travelers?" Oravec asked. "She was there providing love and grace. She was the best at what she did, I'm quite certain."

Students from Lisbon Elementary and Glenwood Middle schools in western Howard County, which the children most recently attended, wrote letters to their lost classmates that were read aloud by school officials.

David was remembered for his "positive attitude," Brandon for his "big heart," and Megan as a "good friend."

"You were loved here at school," classmates wrote. "We will really miss you."

The Brockdorff children began attending Howard County schools last fall, after their mother purchased a house in Woodbine. The move was a landmark in a prolonged crumbling of their parents' marriage, a union that had started out with hopeful dreams. Pumphrey and Brockdorff were married in June 1996, bought land in Frederick and built a two-story house there with a wide veranda and sweeping views.

"I'm quite certain there was a time when there was happiness and joy, before things changed in ways I don't understand," Oravec reflected during yesterday's service. "If she was standing here today, I know she would say she was grateful for his part in bringing three children into the world. She loved those children from the first moment she saw them to the last moment she saw them and they went to heaven."