Jenni-Lyn Watson Funeral: Hundreds Mourn Murdered Student in Upstate NY

MATTYDALE, N.Y. (CBS/AP) Hundreds have gathered to remember Jenni-Lyn Watson, a 20-year-old college student slain during Thanksgiving break near her home in upstate New York.

PICTURES: Jenni-Lyn Watson Missing

Mourners at the Wednesday funeral for Watson couldn't fit into St. Margaret's Church in Mattydale, just north of Syracuse. Some had to be seated in an adjacent gym.

Mourners included two busloads of students from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., where Watson studied dance.

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick says she was killed by her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Steven Pieper, who then dumped her body in a park.

The 21-year-old Pieper, of Liverpool, N.Y., was charged with murder and pleaded not guilty Saturday night at his initial appearance in Clay town court.

Pieper was held without bail because of the seriousness of the charge, Fitzpatrick told the Syracuse Post-Standard.

The arrest came hours after searchers combing through woods for any sign of Watson found the body of a woman believed to be the missing student covered in debris behind a storage shed in a swampy area of Clay Central Park, Fitzpatrick said.

The site was part of a 1,200-acre area canvassed by more than 100 police and volunteers in suburban Syracuse.

Fitzpatrick said Pieper was upset when Watson tried to end their relationship in early October. He said investigators believe Pieper killed Watson at her parents' house on Nov. 19, and her body was "dumped, frankly, like garbage," in the park.

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF JENNI-LYN WATSON ON CRIMESIDER