A large crowd gathered Sunday at a memorial service for Samantha Koenig, the 18-year-old barista who was kidnapped from an Anchorage coffee shack and murdered.

The celebration of life was at West High School.

Hundreds of people -- many of them wearing the teenager's favorite color, green -- filed into the auditorium to pay their respects. The media were not allowed inside.

After the service, a large crowd formed in the West High parking lot to watch as Koenig's father released dozens of lime-green balloons into the sky, KTUU-TV reports.

Israel Keyes, a 34-year-old, self-employed contractor, has been charged with kidnapping and killing Koenig, and using a debit card to obtain ransom money. He was arrested in Texas about six weeks after the young woman's disappearance early February.