5,000 At Manole’s Funeral

More than 5,000 people attended the funeral of Bulgarian singer Madalina Manole July 16, two days after she committed suicide by drinking a nearly a pint of insecticide.

National Forensic Institute pathologist Dan Demengiu said the singer would have died within minutes of drinking a powerful poison called Furadan, which is used to control insects in crops.

Manole’s husband found her dead on the morning of her 43rd birthday.

She became one of the country’s best-loved artists, specializing in folk and popular music, often with romantic themes, and her death shocked Romanians.

Police directed traffic from the Holy Emperors Church in Ploiesti, where the burial service was performed, to the city’s Bolovani Cemetery.

Manole’s fans started to clap their hands when the car bearing the coffin appeared and continued until it reached the graveside.