As Linda Stein’s grieving friends and family laid the murder victim to rest, an alleged killer was in their midst.
Stein’s assistant, Natavia Lowery, 26, who cops say confessed Friday to the millionaire realtor’s brutal killing, sobbed throughout Stein’s funeral at the Riverside Memorial Chapel on West 76th Street on Nov. 2.
A weeping Lowery, dressed in black, stood in the doorway of the chapel, wiping her eyes with a tis sue as she watched Stein’s service broadcast live on a television for the overflowing crowd.
Three days earlier, she had beaten her boss to death with a yoga stick in a fit of rage, be fore calmly mopping up the pool of blood, according to her confession to cops.
After the funeral, Lowery mingled among the distraught mourners on the Upper West Side footpath.
Her aunt yesterday confirmed to The Post that Lowery had attended the funeral service, but said her niece was unable to join mourners at the burial service following the memorial as Stein’s daughters had said she was unwelcome.
“They were already pinning it on her,” said Julia Lowery, 44, of Dalzelo, S.C.
The mystery of Stein’s Fifth Avenue murder was unsolved for a week, with her daughters, lovers and real-estate colleagues all cast into suspicion.
But Friday, Lowery told police she bashed her boss to death after Stein blew marijuana smoke in her face and used racially derogatory comments.
Lowery’s distraught parents visited their daughter on Rikers Island yesterday, clutching gifts of a teddy bear and pink blanket.
“My child is the innocent one in this situation,” Danny Lowery said.
“[Stein] loved my daughter and my daughter loved her. The smoking and the drinking bothered my daughter, that’s why she quit. [Stein] begged her to come back. My daughter got her into AA. She’s better than her own daughters.”
Lowery’s mom, Jeraldine Lottie, added: “This is like a nightmare I want to wake up from.”
Stein’s daughters, Samantha and Mandy, declined to comment yesterday as Lowery’s friends and family proclaimed her innocence.
Lowery’s former high-school sweetheart Chandell Lee, 28, of Brooklyn, said in the 15 years he had known her, she had never shown any sign of a temper.
“She does not have the heart to kill anyone,” he said. “She would not smack a fly on her forehead.”
When Natavia was told of her boss’ death, she was calm, her aunt said.
“She said she thought she had died from the cancer, drinking and smoking reefer,” Julia Lowery said.
“My niece doesn’t fight. She is too afraid to break a nail or get a scratch on her face.
“She would wash Linda’s hair for her every day – that’s how close they were.
“She would have no motive to do something like this.”
Additional reporting by Brad Hamilton and Georgett Roberts