Jenni Rivera public funeral, tribute likely next week
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Family members of Mexican American singer Jenni Rivera said a public funeral service and tribute will probably be held next week.
Rivera, 43, a mother of five and master of a growing international business empire, was killed when a jet crashed early Sunday morning near Iturbide, Mexico. Six others, including two pilots, also were on board.
‘Soon we will have a ceremony in which fans can say goodbye to my sister,’ her brother Juan Rivera told the Spanish news agency EFE. The service could be as early as Tuesday.
PHOTOS: Fans remember Jenni Rivera
Her brothers landed at Long Beach Municipal Airport on Thursday night with Rivera’s remains after Mexican authorities confirmed she had been on the plane. The remains were later taken to All Souls Cemetery and Mortuary in Long Beach.
Her brother Lupillo Rivera on Friday tweeted, ‘Jenni mission accomplished, you’re home.’
Fans have continued to gather outside her family’s Lakewood home, dropping off flowers and balloons in tribute to the diva of banda music. Rivera had sold more than 20 million albums and launched her own makeup line and perfume.
PHOTOS: Jenni Rivera dies in plane crash
As Rivera’s remains were positively identified Thursday, two police officers were arrested in the alleged theft of materials from the site where the singer’s plane crashed.
Authorities told Mexican media that ‘victim’s belongings’ were found at the homes of the two officers. The Associated Press reported that one of the officers allegedly took graphic photos of the crash site, including of body parts.
Mexican authorities and the National Transportation Safety Board were continuing to investigate the crash “to formulate a hypothesis as to the cause of the accident,” the statement said, noting that the investigation could take nine months to a year to be concluded.
An appreciation: Jenni Rivera was a rare voice
The same plane, according to U.S. aviation records, sustained “substantial” damage in 2005 when a fuel imbalance left one wing tip weighing as much as 300 pounds more than the other. The unnamed pilot, despite having logged more than 7,000 hours in the air, lost control while landing in Amarillo, Texas, and struck a runway distance marker. No one was injured.
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-- Adolfo Flores and Scott Gold
Photo: Items left by fans form a memorial for Jenni Rivera, the Mexican singing superstar, outside her mother’s home in Lakewood. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
