March 5–The sky matched most of the crowd’s blue clothing at Wednesday’s on-campus memorial service for slain SBCC student Brianna Denison, as people donned her favorite color in her memory.
Known as “Bri” by many, Denison’s body was found Feb. 15 in an outlying field in her hometown of Reno, Nevada after she was abducted from a friend’s house on Jan. 20. Police say she was kidnapped and strangled by a suspected serial rapist.
The suspect–described as a white male between the ages of 28 to 40 with light to dirty blonde hair–is still at large.
More than 200 students, staff and faculty alike gathered to remember the second-year-student’s life.
Friend Kaylie Hartje said Denison was the most compassionate person she ever met.
“She did nothing but give and give and never expected anything,” Hartje said tearfully.
Hartje recalled the time they met, when Denison was getting ready to go out with Hartje’s roommates. Hartje said she decided to stay in because of a concussion. Without ever speaking to her before, Bri offered to stay with her so she wouldn’t be in pain alone.
“This simply illustrates Bri’s wonderful, beautiful, caring personality,” Hartje said.
Many said her concern for others was the driving force behind the 19-year-old’s ambition: to become a child psychologist.
Julie Smith, chair of SBCC’s Early Childhood Education, worked with Bri in at SBCC’s Kinko’s Early Learning Center in the fall. Smith said she sought out the ones who appeared to be more troubled.
“She was drawn to them,” Smith said at the service. “She told me that she could look into their eyes and see they needed support.”
Communication professor Julie Brown, who had Denison in her personal development class, said she saw that desire to help those in need when Denison gave an in-class presentation.
“She said, ‘I want to make a difference. I want to make a difference in the lives of children and in the lives of my own family,” Brown said at the service. ” Well, today you are her family…and now you have to make a difference to her too.”
As part of college tradition, the flags in front of the Eli Luria Library were lowered to half-mast for Bri. Dean Keith McLellan, who conducted the service, said that the lowering was a representation of who the second-year student was.
“It is hope, opportunity and purpose,” McLellan said. “It is a sign that hope has been interrupted.”
Dr. Jack Friedlander, executive vice president of Educational Programs, read a letter that Superintendent-President John Romo sent to Bri’s mother, Bridgette Zunino-Denison.
“Along with so many others, we held to the hope that Brianna would survive this ordeal, come home, and eventually return to SBCC,” Friedlander read. “Her death has hit this campus very hard and we share in your grief.”
A celebration of Bri’s life was held in Reno Feb. 23. The Reno-Gazette Journal reported that about 3,000 people braved a snowstorm to pay their respects to Bri.
