Family, friends, colleagues pay their respects to 3 women killed, allegedly by family member (2024)

JACKSON, Miss. —

Family, friends and colleagues are paying their respects to three women killed earlier this month by a family member.

The funeral for Crystal Welch, 42, Vicky Welch, 56, and their mother, 76-year-old Ida Thomas Welch was held Thursday morning at New Hope Baptist Church in Jackson. The women were found shot to death on Mother’s Day inside a Ridgeland home.

The suspect, Ivory James Welch III, was the son of Ida and brother of Crystal and Vicky. He was killed days later in a shootout with state troopers in Arizona after he fled Mississippi following the shooting.

Crystal Welch was board president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi and an attorney who worked as a professor at Mississippi College School of Law. Among the mourners visiting the funeral home Wednesday were two women who work for the Mississippi Department of Child Protective Services. They said Crystal Welch was instrumental in helping place several kids in foster homes.

The last surviving sibling, Kim Welch, struggled to hold back tears during the visitation Wednesday at Westhaven Funeral Home as she talked about suddenly losing her entire family. She said even though Crystal was the youngest, she was the glue that held the family together. She said they always did things together and talked every day.

"They have all left. Nobody is here, and I miss them," Kim Welch said. "God give me strength every single day."

Kim Welch said her family did everything they could to get help for her brother as he struggled with drug addiction and mental health problems.

"No one ever imagined he would do this. No one ever — not ever," she said. "He was not supposed to have guns, so nobody would ever imagine he could have taken a gun to do anything."

The women will be laid to rest following a Thursday morning funeral at New Hope Baptist Church.