He wasn’t just a coach; he was a beloved hero. Slain youth-soccer coach Michael “Jonesy” Jones, 25, was remembered yesterday as a role model idolized by the kids he mentored.
“Mike Jones was a hero to so many kids in the community,” said an emotional Cathryn Kaehr, of Westchester, one of about 500 mourners at a service at the First Baptist Church in White Plains
Jones girlfriend Bryeanne Murphy — who was talking to Jones on his cellphone seconds before he was fatally stabbed early Sunday on a Greenwich Village street in a possible case of mistaken identity — didn’t speak.
Wearing a black dress, she sat next to her dad, Tim, who comforted her during the service, organized by the New York Red Bulls soccer team, which hired Jones five years ago.
The 25-year-old’s body will be flown to his native England, where his family lives north of Liverpool.
Jones’ suspected stabber, Orlando Orea, 32, who also went by the last name Gutierrez, remained on the lam after ducking cops and hopping a flight to Mexico City Tuesday.
The NYPD is working with the FBI’s legal attach in Mexico City to track him down, Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday.
Law-enforcement sources were confident he’d be tracked down and brought back to New York to face a murder rap.