PRESCOTT, Ariz. — As if in a snow-globe village adjusted for the warmth of an Arizona winter, the gathering place at the heart of this city is a square with a western-wear boutique, a yogurt shop and, on the green lawn of the old courthouse, a scene playing out that is sadly familiar to many people here.

There was the herd of tripods assembling on the grass. A television reporter applying her makeup under the shade of the gazebo. And the hulking satellite trucks, driven here from Phoenix and Los Angeles, hogging parking spots, their dishes aimed at a baby-blue sky.

It had been confirmed that Kayla Mueller, the humanitarian aid worker long held captive by the Islamic State and a native of this city, was dead. And now, once again, Prescott, a community all too familiar with loss, had drawn the attention of outsiders because of tragedy. In June 2013, the grief was over 19 firefighters killed as they battled a wildfire nearby. This week, it was for a young woman who had gone abroad to help war refugees.

“We’ve lost a daughter,” Lisa Sandberg, who has lived here for 35 years, said Tuesday after wandering over to see what was going on. “She was out there trying ...” Ms. Sandberg stopped herself. “She wasn’t trying — she was making a difference in the world.”