Hundreds pay respects to slain student

Hundreds of mourners said goodbye to a student from Peru who was killed in his New York apartment last weekend. Kevin Pravia's friends and family released balloons into the sky and said "We love you" in unison at the Pittsfield cemetery where Pravia was buried Friday. Pravia, a Pace University student, was strangled with a power cord, and a plastic bag was stuffed down his throat. Jeromie Cancel confessed to the crime, saying he killed and robbed Pravia after the 19-year-old approached him in a park in search of drugs, and they went to Pravia's apartment. A friend of Pravia's family has said they doubt Cancel's story, and Cancel could have followed Pravia home. During the funeral service, the Rev. Peter Gregory remembered Pravia as a loving person respected by all. (AP)

A 65-year-old Massachusetts man suffered an apparent heart attack and died while hiking a remote mountain in Bethlehem. A spokesman for the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department says Charles Loring of Georgetown, Mass., and two companions were hiking an unnamed peak south of Haystack Mountain when the victim suffered the heart attack around noon yesterday. His companions called emergency workers and provided GPS coordinates for their location, but Loring died before rescue workers could reach the remote area. Emergency workers spent more than seven hours traveling to the trail-less site and retrieve Loring's body. (AP)

A 66-year-old Roxbury man is to be arraigned on a murder charge tomorrow in West Roxbury District Court, for allegedly killing a female neighbor, according to the Suffolk district attorney's office. Charles Cherry was charged shortly after the 11:15 p.m. attack on Friday, police said. Police identified the victim only as a female in her 50s who appeared to have sustained a stab wound. The building on Amory Street is owned by the Boston Housing Authority. It is believed to be the first homicide at the complex in some time, a spokeswoman said. "The Amory Street building has an extensive security system," said the spokeswoman, Lydia Agro. "This is unusual."

A body found along Interstate 91 has been identified as that of George R. Roy of Chicopee, Mass., and Vermont State Police said yesterday that he had been killed. Roy, 64, was found in grass off the east side of the highway Friday near the Running Bear Campground, according to State Police Captain Ed Ledo. An autopsy was performed, but the cause and manner of death were being withheld, Ledo said. Police from Chicopee had begun a missing persons inquiry into Roy's disappearance and contacted Vermont authorities after information about the discovery of the body was shared with New England law enforcement agencies, Ledo said. Chicopee police determined that a violent crime had occurred in Roy's home, according to Ledo, who said in a news release that the body was identified by fingerprints. Police appealed for information from anyone who may have been in the area of I-91 northbound near mile marker 53 between Tuesday and Friday and saw any suspicious vehicles on the side of the road. (AP)

A young female died after being hit by a commuter rail train yesterday in Mansfield. The victim, whose name was not released by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, was hit at 7:30 p.m. by a train on the Providence line, said Lydia Rivera, spokeswoman for the MBTA. Rivera said the accident is under investigation, but she did not provide other details.

Three convicted felons from Massachusetts are in trouble with the law for allegedly conspiring to buy guns illegally at a pawnshop in downtown Bangor. Levar Carey of Brockton, Mass., and James Damon of North Easton, Mass., pleaded not guilty Thursday to conspiring to make false statements in the acquisition of firearms, aiding and abetting the making of false statements in the acquisition of firearms, and being felons in possession of firearms. No arraignment date has been set for a third suspect, Christopher Riley of Brockton, who faces the same charges. The men, all in their 20s, were indicted last month by a federal grand jury in Bangor. (AP)