WESTMINSTER — More than 1,000 people stood in the rain and wind Saturday afternoon, waiting for one last chance to say goodbye to Jessica Ridgeway.

Most of the people who gathered at 2 p.m. to remember the 10-year-old girl had never met her. Still, they joined hands and prayed together before releasing enough purple balloons that the gray sky was, for a brief moment, masked in Jessica’s favorite color.

Jessica disappeared from her Westminster home on Oct. 5. Authorities confirmed Friday evening that a body found just miles from where she was taken was, in fact, Jessica’s.

Diane Johnson stood, like many, huddled under an umbrella. She’d never met Jessica.

“It’s horrible knowing someone could do that to a little girl,” Johnson said.

The celebration for Jessica’s life was in the parking lot near the American Furniture Warehouse at West 94th Avenue and Wadsworth Parkway. People walked up to half a mile to attend, after traffic on the roadway became clogged with people trying to get to the event.

Almost everyone was draped in purple and most could not help but wipe away tears with raindrops.