Local native killed by Maryland sniper

Lori Lewis Rivera, 25, had moved from Mountain Home to Maryland to pursue her dream of working with children.

She returned home yesterday and will be buried today, Wednesday, in what the family hopes will be a private ceremony, after she was shot and killed by a sniper that has terrorized the Washington, D.C., area and riveted the nation's attention on the ongoing acts of senseless deaths that have shaken that area.

She leaves behind her three-year-old daughter, Jocelin, and her husband, Nelson, a family that she "totally adored," as well as her mother and father, Marion "Boots" and Jolynn Lewis of Mountain Home, and her only sibling, her sister, Charity Randall, of Boise, as well as Randall's husband Kelly and their son Alex , all of Boise, and grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Herb Helmic, and Mrs. Lois Lewis, all from Illinois.

Rivera was one of five people killed last Wednesday night and Thursday morning in the first 16 hours of the opening wave of attacks by the sniper, who has since killed one more and seriously wounded two others, including a 13-year-old boy shot Monday as he was being dropped off at his school. Authorities said each victim was shot once with a high-powered .223 hunting rifle and that the victims appeared to have been chosen at random. As of press time, despite a massive effort by local, state and federal authorities, no suspect in the shootings had been identified.

The tragic death left her family stunned and grieving. Her father works for Mountain Home Redi-Mix and her mother works at one of the Mercy Housing units in Mountain Home.

Lewis was killed as she was vacuuming her minivan at a gas station in Kensington, Maryland, while getting ready to go to her job as a nanny, taking care of two children.

Her sister, Charity, said she first learned of the death when her sister's husband, Nelson, called her last Thursday. She then called her parents to relay the news of the senseless tragedy.

She said her sister had wanted to be a nanny since she was in junior high. "She adored children," Charity Randall said. Her daughter, Jocelin, "was the love of her life."

"She was a very quiet person, very shy. She basically kept to herself, but she was very loving" and devoted to her family.

"She was always honest and very kind. She never said anything bad about anybody," Randall said, noting that she "was the type of person who cared, and she always sent out cards to people on every occassion, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, whatever.

"She always talked about her immediate family," she said, adding, "she was never vain, or selfish."

"She was very close to her mother," said a family friend, Pat Eagley of Mountain Home. "She always had a smile for everybody. She was just a good, beautiful, all-around girl. Someone to be proud of."

Lewis-Rivera doted on her preschool-age daughter, said her Maryland neighbor Janine Rocah, who was interviewed by national media crying as she sat on the front steps of their apartment complex in a working-class section of Silver Spring, Md.

"She was her sweet little princess," Rocah said. "The mom provided everything for her." Their children played together, she said, and Lewis-Rivera's daughter had a room filled with games and toys. Rocah added: "She was a very nice and sweet lady. Like any human being, she had dreams."

She was born May 4, 1977, in Illinois. The family moved to Mountain Home in 1982.

A quiet student in school, she took part in Drama Club activities, and graduated from Mountain Home High School in 1995.

Pursuing her dream of working as a nanny, she studied and received a degree from the Northwest Nannies Institute. Through the LDS Church she met and married Nelson Rivera in January of 1997. He works as a landscaper.

The couple had moved to Maryland when Lori obtained a nanny job there. She was working on her third job in what was becoming a successful career as a nanny when she was killed.

"She always gave her all when it came to making children's lives happier," her sister said.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. today, Wednesday, Oct. 9, at Summers Funeral Homes, McMurtrey Chapel in Mountain Home. Burial will follow at Mountain View Cemetery. Visitation will be held today, from noon until the time of the service, at Summers Funeral Homes, McMurtrey Chapel.

A memorial fund has been set up for her husband and three-year-old daughter.

Donations may be sent to the Lori Lewis Rivera Family Fund, c/o Summers Funeral Homes, McMurtrey Chapel, 500 N. 18th East St., Mountain Home, ID 83647.