RENO, Nev. - More than 3,000 mourners gathered Saturday night to remember a 19-year-old college student believed killed by a serial rapist as a loving, caring woman with many friends and a winning personality.
Brianna Denison's body was found in a Reno field on Feb. 15. Police said she was abducted Jan. 20 and strangled by a man linked to two earlier attacks on the edge of the University of Nevada, Reno.
Outside the memorial service, several members of a fundamentalist Kansas church faced off against more than 150 counter-demonstrators.
Church officials said they targeted the city because local law enforcement officers failed to protect church members who picketed a Jan. 26 memorial service there for a soldier who was killed in Iraq.
On Saturday, the three protesters waved placards reading "Pray for More Dead Kids," "Don't Worship the Dead" and "God Sent the Killer."
Last month, the church announced it would protest the service for Denison because it believes God hates Reno.
