College student laid to rest, two months after her body was found

<p>An Illinois State University student missing for more than a week before her badly burned body was found in the rubble of a Mississippi chicken house was remembered at her funeral service Saturday as a woman who "showed people the kindness in her heart."</p><p>Olamide Adeyooye was a native of Nigeria who moved to the Chicago suburbs when she was eight. In his eulogy, her younger brother said he would try to let go of his anger over his sister's violent death, because that is what she would have wanted.</p><p>"She was as close to perfect as anyone can be," said Adewale Adeyooye.</p><p>About 250 mourners, including ISU students, attended the funeral at St. Domitilla Church in suburban Hillside. A single candle atop a pedestal burned throughout the ceremony above Adeyooye's white casket. She was to be buried at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside.</p><p>A 27-year-old man who lived in the same block in Normal where Adeyooye lived while attending college has been charged in McLean County in her death.</p><p>Adewale Adeyooye said his 21-year-old sister was a loving person who guided him through some tough times in high school and believed that her compassionate behavior to others would be returned to her.</p><p>"She showed people the kindness in her heart," he said.</p><p>Her death has left Adewale Adeyooye without a guiding light.</p><p>"Sometimes I cry at night because I wonder how my family will get on without her," Adewale Adeyooye said. "She was the glue that held our family together."</p><p>Before delivering his eulogy, he read a statement from his mother. Yinka Adeyooye told the mourners that she pursued her dream of moving to the United States so she could provide a better life for her children and that her daughter's promising future was cut short by "the hardworking devil."</p><p>She described her daughter as "the child that every parent should dream of."</p><p>Olamide Adeyooye would have graduated several weeks ago from ISU. She was last seen renting videos on Oct. 13 near her off-campus apartment in Normal. Her body was found eight days later in a burnt Mississippi chicken house.</p><p>The man accused in her death, Maurice Wallace, knew Adeyooye, but they were not friends, prosecutors have said.</p><p>Wallace has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, concealing a homicide and theft of a motor vehicle.</p><p>Prosecutors allege Wallace left a bloody fingerprint in Adeyooye's apartment and that personal belongings of his were found along with Adeyooye's keys in a rental car Wallace had when he was arrested Oct. 20 in Atlanta on unrelated charges. Adeyooye's car was later found abandoned in Atlanta.</p><p>Wallace, who is being held in the McLean County Jail in lieu of more than $2 million bond, is scheduled to appear in court again Jan. 6.</p><p>The McLean County coroner's office released Adeyooye's remains on Dec. 21 to a suburban Chicago funeral home. Forensic tests were performed at the Bloomington morgue to pinpoint the ISU senior's cause of death. Two earlier autopsies were inconclusive, but prosecutors have said Adeyooye died of bleeding due to a "penetrating injury."</p><p>Adeyooye's longtime friend James Frazier, a Brown University student from Bellwood, said after the funeral that he's trying to "find comfort in the fact that her body and soul are at peace. She's safe from an evil world."</p><p>Frazier, who attended high school with Adeyooye, said many of her friends are still struggling to come to terms with her death.</p><p>"It's kind of a traumatic time," Frazier said. "A lot of them are really hurt ... they're just trying to cope with what happened."</p>