After four years of marriage without a wedding band, Quinn lost her life Monday while ring shopping at Trolley Square. Before meeting her husband, she was gunned down by Sulejman Talovic with a shotgun.

As mourners gathered Friday for Quinn's funeral, her husband carried a wedding ring on his finger. Trolley Square jeweler Payne Anthony had donated the diamond band. Quinn's employer, Overstock.com, had given another.

Rich Quinn fidgeted with the ring and wept over his 29-year-old sweetheart.

"We just had to say goodbye," he said. "Now she's taken care of."

Inside the Larkin Sunset Gardens funeral home, Vanessa Quinn's mountain bike stood near her casket. A Real Salt Lake scarf lay among wedding photos. A pair of skis, soccer pads and stocking cap added to the memorial.

As the 400-seat funeral hall filled to capacity, smiles broke over the somber crowd as the thumping rhythms of Nerd's "Rock Star" - one of Quinn's favorites - played over the speaker system.

Friends laughed, reminisced and cried as they celebrated a woman who lived life one adventure at a time.

They spoke of an athlete so fast that her teammates - and everyone else - saw only the green soles of her shoes on the soccer field.

They remembered a woman who out-climbed her colleagues while mountain biking on the White Rim Trail near Moab. They joked about Quinn's no-fear lifestyle that earned her the nickname "No-Turns Ness" while learning to ski in West Virginia.

Then they mourned.

"This is the hardest thing this family has ever been through," said her father, Kenneth Antrobus, who arrived Friday from Cincinnati. "This family is torn up."

He then stepped down from the podium and sobbed. In a slow tear-choked cry, he called out, "Vanessa!"

Quinn's family was to have her body cremated today. Half of her ashes will go to Cincinnati with her parents. The rest will stay with her husband, who hopes to one day spread her ashes atop the Uinta Mountains, where the couple spent one of their first weekends in Utah.

He then added, "I don't know if I'll ever be ready to let her go."

As Quinn's favorite melodies spilled from the funeral home - including "Fly Like a Bird" by Nelly Furtado - mourners never mentioned the man who killed her. Not once was Talovic's name or the details of that tragic night at Trolley Square discussed during the service.

"There is no room for hatred," Rich Quinn said. "There just isn't."

Those wishing to donate to the Quinn family may go to their Web site, www.vanessaquinn.com, which has received nearly a half-million hits since the shooting.

jstettler@sltrib.com