WATERVILLE (AP) – More than 100 people attended a memorial service for Dawn Rossignol, where she was remembered as a selfless and kind young woman who was loved deeply by those who knew her best.

Friends, family members, Colby College students and faculty, and investigators from the Maine State Police attended the Saturday service at Lorimer Chapel, not far from where Rossignol was abducted from campus and murdered on Sept. 16.

Laura Olenick, Rossignol’s best friend and roommate at Colby, said Rossignol sent random greeting cards to cheer people up, encouraged others in tough times and even showed kindness to telemarketers who called the dormitory.

“She was a genuinely good person who thought about others before herself,” Olenick said.

“My heart almost literally broke when I heard she was not going to be with me the rest of my life, that we were not going to be 40 years old drinking coffee at a kitchen table, reminiscing about the stupid, crazy things we did in college, and the places we’d been.”

Rossignol, 21, of Medway, was last seen alive at Colby on the morning of Sept. 16, when she was planning to drive to Bangor for a doctor’s appointment.

A week after Rossignol’s body was found near a stream a mile from Colby in Oakland, police arrested Edward J. Hackett, a 47-year-old parolee from Utah, at his parents’ home in Vassalboro.

Hackett is charged with kidnapping and murder, and has confessed to a newspaper reporter. He has yet to stand trial.

Colby College President William Adams said the memorial provided an opportunity for the community to express solidarity and honor Rossignol.

Art Professor Veronique Plesch, who had Rossignol in one of her classes as a sophomore, said she was a model student and “a ray of light” who transformed the lives of those she touched.

“We remember some (students) for a long time, and I know that Dawn is one of them,” Plesch said. “It was her intelligence that made me remember her, her thoughtfulness, her spirit, her kindness.”

Father Philip Tracy, Catholic chaplain for the college, said Rossignol attended Mass faithfully and gave of herself in an inspiring, yet quiet and humble way.

“She did not live just for herself,” Tracy said. “She very clearly understood that hers was a life of service … that she had to give back to this community and to society.”

AP-ES-11-09-03 1310EST