'They need to pay for taking my son away,' Ethan Stacy's father says

GRUNDY, Va. — A town in mourning turned out Tuesday night to pay their respects to Ethan Stacy.

"It's a hard time. We loved little Ethan," said Marshall Osborne, a longtime friend of Ethan's father, Joe Stacy, and one of the pallbearers for Ethan's funeral.

A funeral service will be held this afternoon for Ethan, followed by a procession from the funeral home in Grundy, Va., to the Clinch Valley Memorial Cemetery in Richlands, Va., about 30 miles away.

Stacy was a man who looked in deep despair Tuesday over the tragic loss of his son. As he recalled fond memories of Ethan while wiping back tears, he also called for justice to be served.

"They need to pay for taking my son away," he said.

A church service was held Tuesday night for 4-year-old Ethan on the eve of his funeral. While hardly anyone in Utah knew Ethan in life, he has touched the lives of people in Utah and across the nation following his brutal death, allegedly at the hands of his mother, Stephanie Sloop, and her newlywed husband, Nathan Sloop.

The Sloops remained in the Davis County Jail on Tuesday, pending possible aggravated murder charges.

Stacy, who has been in constant contact with both Davis County prosecutors and victim advocates in Utah, said if they can file aggravated murder charges, he expects they will seek the death penalty against his ex-wife and her husband.

He said he is OK with prosecutors needing additional time before filing official charges.

"I don't want any mistakes made at all. Nothing. I don't want them coming out of this in any type of way," he said.

The focus Tuesday, however, was on Ethan and not the couple accused in his death.

Stacy recalled how his son was a quick learner.

"I could show him how to do something, he'd pick it up just like that," he told the Deseret News Tuesday. "He's just a very intelligent boy."

Stacy recalled how his son was "a great boy," how he loved to go to the playground and how most recently he had developed a strong liking for PlayStation video games.

"He'd stay glued to it all day if I let him," Stacy said.