About 50 people gathered at the site of the crime Sunday evening to remember Letitia Davis, the victim of an attack at Fairmount Park who died Saturday morning at Via Christi St. Francis.

Fairmount residents, Wichita State students and friends, family and complete strangers to the 36-year-old victim attended the vigil, signing a poster board and releasing balloons with messages like “Rest in peace and paradise” and “We will miss you” written across them in her memory.

Some balloons drifted away in the high winds Sunday night. Others were tied to a fence that surrounds the tennis court, where scorched grass bordered the fence a week ago.

“Her life was not in vain,” friends and family said in prayer Sunday. Steady, pouring rain fell during the vigil.

Davis was walking through Fairmount Park — which is one block south of the Wichita State campus — around 11 p.m. Nov. 14 when she had a random encounter with a man who beat, sexually assaulted and set her on fire, according to police.

“We thank you God for the 36 years you gave us,” friends and family said in prayer Sunday, “to love her, to share her with the world.”

Brianne Moore, a Wichita State junior, said she attended the vigil to show support from the community.

“I didn’t know her,” Moore said. “I just wanted to show support. That’s what a community does. It’s about the family and the friends who are close to her.”

Cornell A. McNeal was arrested Wednesday evening and charged with attempted capital murder, rape and arson in connection with the attack, said Dan Dillon, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office.  On Friday, prosecutors were also offering an alternative charge of attempted first-degree murder, he said.

Police were able to link McNeal to the crime through evidence obtained by forensic nurses at Via Christi St. Francis hospital, police said last week.

McNeal received charges the day before the victim died in the hospital. She suffered burns to 55 percent of her body, police said last week.

The arrest was made around 7:30 p.m. in the 2700 block of North Battin, according to the Wichita Police Department’s arrest bookings from Thursday. That’s in the neighborhood just south of the Hughes Metropolitan Complex at 29th and Oliver Streets.

Since the victim’s death, the District Attorney’s office will review the charges filed against McNeal with the Wichita Police Department Monday morning, Dillon said Saturday. The charges will likely be amended to capital murder, rather than attempted capital murder.

“The staff of the office of the District Attorney extends our sympathy to the friends and the family of the victim,” District Attorney Marc Bennett said in a provided statement.

Cassandra Carrington has been a life-long resident of the Fairmount neighborhood, just like her mother. Carrington said she has walked through the park at night many times, and was in disbelief when she heard the news.

At the vigil on Sunday, she admired flowers and trinkets adorning the tennis court fence.

“I was devastated that something like this could really happen to such a beautiful person, and an innocent woman,” Carrington said. “It could have been me. It could have been anyone.”

Wichita State University posted a statement on its Facebook page Saturday.

“Our deepest condolences go out to the friends and family of the victim of the Fairmount Park attack who passed away this morning,” it read.

As a WSU student, Moore said she is taking safety into consideration since the attack in Fairmount Park.

“With [the crime] being so close to campus,” Moore said, “it kind of makes you know that you have to be careful wherever you are.”