CARY - About 170 friends, family members and area residents gathered Saturday to remember Nancy Cooper in a place she loved: Koka Booth Amphitheatre, the site of the outdoor N.C. Symphony concerts she frequented.

Many in the crowd had helped search for Cooper when she was reported missing last Saturday and have been grieving in private since her body was identified late Tuesday. Saturday's ceremony, in the steamy outdoor pavilion, was a chance to share their loss with the wider community.

Cooper's family from her native Canada attended, along with her daughters. Bella, 4, arrived in a light green dress and pink ball cap, while Katie, almost 2, wore a white-and-red jumper and sucked on a white pacifier. Both girls sat with their grandparents through the ceremony.

Bella and Katie's music teacher, Julia Cobley of KinderVillage in Cary, opened the memorial by singing "Over the Rainbow," adding "for Nancy" as she sat down.

Pastor Mark Drengler of Resurrection Lutheran Church told the crowd that he had not known Cooper, but that after hearing friends speak at an invitation-only candlelight vigil Friday night he could tell she was

a woman who loved to live.

Drengler said of Cooper's death, "This tragic, evil event -- it's not fair. You know it, I know it, but most importantly God knows it.

"God did not promise us a fair world, and God is not to blame."

Volunteers searching for Cooper after her disappearance last weekend had planned to base their search out of Drengler's church on Tuesday. Instead, it became an impromptu grieving place after Cooper's body was identified.

Police declared Cooper's death a homicide, but have said little about it since and have not named a suspect.

Friends recall Cooper

Another speaker Saturday, Hannah Pritchard, cried openly as she spoke about her friendship with Cooper.

"She was a second mother to my children," said Pritchard, adding that her friend would live on, "especially through these special little girls, Bella and Katie."

Friends Clea Morwick and Jessica Adam held on to each other for support as they spoke of Cooper, whom they described as the life of the party.

Adam, who reported Cooper missing July 12, said that she will pass on the gift of friendship Cooper gave her, and that she looks forward to sharing memories of Cooper with her daughters when they are older.

Cooper's father, Garry Rentz of Edmonton, Alberta, concluded the event by thanking the community for supporting his family, saying, "You have made us feel so welcome."

Cooper's relatives planned to return to Canada this evening to attend a memorial service at Grace Lutheran Church in Edmonton on Wednesday. They said they will return to North Carolina on Thursday.

Rentz and Cooper's identical twin sister, Krista Lister, were granted emergency custody of the children Wednesday after telling a judge that Cooper's husband, Bradley, posed a threat to the girls' safety. Bradley Cooper was ordered to turn over the girls' passports, which Rentz and Lister said he had taken to prevent his wife from traveling to Canada with the girls.

Bradley Cooper did not attend the remembrance ceremonies and has not been seen in public for several days. His attorneys said Friday that he needed to mourn outside the public eye and did not kill his wife.

Back at the memorial, Pritchard ended her speech with a Native American poem in which she said friends and family members had found solace last week. The poem's final lines read: "Do not think of me as gone -- I am still with you each new dawn."