The cocaine finding was confirmed.
Photos taken at the scene and in the immediate aftermath documented injuries to Gay Sr.’s body consistent with the physical fight that had preceded the shooting—bruising, contusions consistent with being struck.
These photographs would become significant in the legal proceedings that followed.
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PART FIFTEEN: THE FUNERAL
On April 5, 1984—four days after the shooting—Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, became the site of one of the largest public memorial gatherings in recent Los Angeles history.
More than 10,000 people came.
They came to pay their respects to a man they had never met—a man whose voice had been present in their lives through some of the most significant moments of those lives. Who had sung to them about love and grief and longing and the state of the world. Who had made them feel, through the alchemy of music, that they were not alone in whatever they were feeling.
A private funeral followed, attended by more than 500 people, including many of the most significant figures in American music. Smokey Robinson was there. Stevie Wonder was there. Dick Gregory was there. Stevie Wonder performed a song he had written for the occasion—”Lighting Up the Candles.”
Anna Gordy Gaye attended. Despite the tumultuous end of their marriage, Anna and Marvin had remained close friends in the years following their divorce. She was there.
Marvin Gaye’s body was cremated. Anna Gordy Gaye and Gaye’s three children later scattered most of his ashes over the Pacific Ocean.