Thousands Remember Slain Reno Student
Some 3,000 people braved a snow storm Saturday to remember Brianna Denison, a 19-year-old college student who is believed to have been killed by a serial rapist.
Mourners at the "Live, Love and Unite" ceremony celebrated the life of a beautiful young girl who was described as warm and caring, whose favorite color was blue and who was just a sophomore at Santa Barbara City College in California.
Denison was visiting her hometown over winter break when she was abducted while sleeping on a couch in a friend's home just off the University of Nevada, Reno, according to The Associated Press.
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Her body was found strangled in a Reno field on Feb. 15. She had been missing since Jan. 20. Police said she was killed by a man linked to earlier attacks against two other college women on the edge of the Reno campus.
"Could anybody have asked for a prettier face and a more beautiful soul? I don't think so," Denison's cousin, Spencer Terry, said to AP.
Marc Klaas, father of Polly who was kidnapped, raped and killed at the age of 12 in a 1993 murder case that gained national attention, was at Denison's ceremony.
He told the thousands present he is going to help introduce a bill to the Nevada Legislature next year that would call for a sentencing enhancement against sex offenders with prior convictions and would also expand the requirements for those who have to submit their DNA to be entered into databases. The bill would further ask that Nevada provide funding to rid of backlogs, according to Reno Gazette-Journal.
The crowd showed support with loud applause.
Pastor Brad Dennis, who led volunteer civilian searches in the area, asked for divine strength for the community to rally against the injustice of Denison's killing and told the crowd to use this opportunity to safeguard the community. At the same time, he asked the people not be consumed with anger and to embrace the love for life Denison represents, as reported by the local newspaper.
