Those on the U.S. mainland will pay tribute to Beth Chapman in a Colorado memorial service, and the turnout is expected to be massive. TMZ reports that the Chapman family is bracing for “a huge crowd” and doing all they can to prepare the Aurora community for the influx of Dog the Bounty Hunter fans making their way to town. This includes coordinating efforts with local police to ensure the safety of the masses attending the event and working with local hotels to secure discounted rates for mourning fans.
The service will take place on July 13 at Heritage Christian Center, located at 14401 E. Exposition Ave. in Aurora. Doors to the venue will open at 1 p.m. and the service is planned to start at 2 p.m. A live stream of the event is planned for those who cannot attend the service in-person.
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No exact projection number has been revealed for the event, but there is obviously lots of interest. Beth’s husband, Duane “Dog” Chapman, tweeted out the memorial details on Monday, and more than 17,000 people liked the message.
Dog has opened up to the family’s supporters several times about Beth’s final days, including how she kept fought to stay alive until the very end.
“Beth was somewhat of a control person — not from the grave but from heaven. I’m sure she’s still controlling me and I’ve got notes in my pillowcases, on my sink, in my shaving thing. She’s still telling me what to wear,” Dog told Hawaii News Now. She did it her way. There’s some things that they predicted that the doctors ended up saying, ‘We’ve never, ever, seen anything like this. Her way was to live. She wanted to live so bad and she fought so long, and the reason she fought, she liked life but she wanted to show people how to beat it and what to do when it got her.
“One of the last things she said [was] ‘It’s a test of my faith.’ She had faith and that was it. There’s things you go through when you’re dying, like steps like you do when you lose someone, right? You get mad at them, and then you go through all these steps. Well, the last step when you’re dying is to accept it. And she said to me the other day, ‘Honey, that last step, I ain’t taking…’ So go Bethy.”
At the time of her death, Beth was 51 years old. Her cause of death is believed to be throat cancer, the illness she had been fight over the past year.
