It was standing room only at a Phoenix funeral home Thursday morning as more than 200 people piled into the memorial service to pay their respects to Corey Lynch.
Lynch was found shot and killed near Broadway and Hardy last Wednesday.
"He loves, loves, loves nature," said his sister, Billie Sartorius. "The woods, especially."
That is where Sartorius hoped her brother was - out enjoying the great outdoors; not dead, as she had been informed last week.
"The kids even thought, 'Maybe he was just camping and they just made a mistake on who it was,'"Sartorius said.
But, the police were unfortunately right.
"It wasn't until yesterday that we finally saw him and we knew it was him," Sartorius said. "And if we've just been trying to live and breath since we heard."
Sartorius said, Lynch's car was taken following the shooting. She said, police told her that they recovered it, but did not say where.
ABC15 did reach out to Tempe police to get an update, but they were unable to confirm further details. They told us they were working to provide more, but could only report that it is an active homicide investigation.
For Sartorius, that is now her focus - finding the person responsible.
"Right now, it's the only thing that we can do because we can't bring him back," Sartorius said. "If we could, that would be the only thing that mattered. But, because we can't - all we care about right now is finding who did this and making sure that they pay in every way possible."
In the meantime, family and friends were forced to say goodbye much earlier than they wanted. Sartorius now having to hold it together for his kids and her own.
"That's the only thing that keeps going thorugh my mind is be strong, be strong, be strong - breathe and smile, smile at the children, so they feel that it's okay to smile themselves."
There is a GoFundMe page for the family. There is also a Facebook page hoping to raise awareness and help catch who killed Lynch.
If you have any information, contact the Tempe Police Department.
