As nearly 100 friends, family members and co-workers gathered Monday to bury Rebekah Ida Brown, local authorities took steps to assume a more aggressive role into the investigation of her death.

The service for Brown, the slain corrections officer from Suffolk whose body was discovered June 28 in the trunk of her car on a rural Prince George County road, was held at Zion United Church of Christ. Brown, 43, of 5003 Manning Road, had worshipped there since moving to Suffolk from New York nearly a decade ago to care for her sick grandmother.

Prince George authorities found Brown, an officer in Sussex I State Prison, a maximum-security facility near Jarrett, in the trunk of her 1997 Toyota on June 28. She was wearing her uniform when she was found, said Officer Michael E. Simpkins, spokesman for the Suffolk Police Department.

Initially, Prince George authorities were handling the investigation in both localities. But on Monday, the Suffolk Police Department assigned a full-time investigator, Det. E.C. Harris, to the case.

Brown left work at 6 a.m. June 24 but never showed up for her next shift that was to have begun at 6 p.m. June 27, according to Prince George authorities.

Brown was last seen in Suffolk at 9:11 p.m. June 25 at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on College Drive, Simpkins said. Police are asking that anyone who may have seen Brown between June 25-29 contact them at 923-2350.

Police still don’t know how Brown died, Simpkins said. Her autopsy results have not been returned from the state crime lab.