Group runs through Vancouver park to honour slain jogger

Hundreds of peoplepaid homage on Fridayat the Vancouver park where a jogger was slain a week ago.

Wendy Ladner-Beaudry's body was found last Friday at about 2:40 p.m. PT on a trail in Pacific Spirit Regional Park near the University of British Columbia, close to SW Marine Drive and Camosun Street, on Vancouver's west side.

Leading the pack, estimated at between 500 and 1,000 people,on the eight-kilometre memorialrun and walk was Ladner-Beaudry's brother, former city councillor Peter Ladner.

"It's just great to see this kick back right away and we gotta keep it up we gotta keep going out there, keep doing the things Wendy liked to do and do the things she wanted other people to be doing," Ladner said.

Not all the participants knew Ladner-Beaudry, but they did know why they came to the park.

"It's just the community coming together to celebrate her life and own our park," said Tina Oliver, a friend of Ladner-Beaudry who helped organize the run.

"We thought that we should help and because we felt that this is an area that nobody should be scared to go here," another runner said.

"Parks are absolutely critical for every community," another said, "and it's important that we take them back and not give in to fear."

Fear has gripped the community since Ladner-Beaudry's body was found facedown by a trail entrance. Police, who have interviewed hundreds of potential witnesses in the neighbourhood, are stilltrying to determine whether her killing was a random or targeted attack.

Her husband, Michel Beaudry, was not at the run. But earlier this week he posted a tribute on Pique, an online news magazinein Whistler, B.C.

"She's gone. The best part of me the strongest, happiest, most confident part of me is no more, violently ripped from our lives at a time when she had so much more to give the world."

A public memorial will be held on Saturday at the UBC Life Sciences Centre at 2 p.m. PT.