Traffic slowed to one lane for a few minutes Thursday afternoon on the Prairie Street overpass while immediate family members paid a private tribute to Christopher Brackner.
Brackner, 18, was found dead about 12:13 a.m. Monday between railroad tracks below the overpass. He is believed to have jumped from the bridge after an Internet romance soured, according to family members.
The young man’s parents, Fred Brackner of Sterling, Colo., and Cindy Mekeel of Emporia, were accompanied onto the bridge by his brother, Steve Brackner, 19, and sister, Mariah Mekeel, 9.
Each carried a long-stemmed yellow rose as they approached the highest point of the bridge, below which Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway workers found his body.
Officers from the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department and the Emporia Police Department diverted traffic around the family members as each dropped yellow long-stemmed roses from the bridge onto the tracks below.
The public funeral service for Christopher Brackner will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Apostolic Tabernacle Church.
Brackner, who was a computer technician, had moved recently to Emporia from Sterling and was planning to continue his education here.