Shirley might have grown up in care and suffered a lonely death but, if she was looking down from heaven, she would know she was dearly loved, Fr John Doherty told mourners. Many sobbed continuously through the Requiem Mass.

Shirley (24) was found seminaked, wrapped in a duvet, in a car park in Ballymena a fortnight ago by a man who thought she was a bundle of rags. She had been strangled.

Police suspect a sexual motive. They want to speak to a tall, dark-haired young man with whom she was seen.

Shirley had been living in Ballymena but she was brought back to the church, overlooking Belfast Lough, where she had been baptised.

"Come to me all you who are labouring and overburdened and I will give you rest, " sang the choir on a dark, drizzly morning. The pinks, purples and yellows of dozens of floral tributes lining the hearse lit up Cavehill.

"Safe now in God's hands, " one read. Fr Doherty said it was one of the most difficult days in his 40 years as a priest:

"It is always sad when a young person dies, particularly so because [Shirley] was brutally murdered, her young body dumped like trash."

He hoped the killer would hand themselves in or be quickly caught. Shirley's "beautiful spirit" was now in a place without confusion or pain.

Fr Doherty read out a thank-you letter Shirley had sent to a former teacher, Mrs Lismore, who had been there for her whenever she was in trouble. "You never know, I might be a singer or a writer.

If you want these things in life, you have to work hard to get them, " she had written.

The funeral was arranged by the Corry family, who raised Shirley from when she was eight months old. The Brady family, with whom she lived from the age of 13, were also present, as were social services and Simon community staff who had helped her.

Shirley's mother Jean, who was schizophrenic and has since died, gave her up after birth. One friend told the Sunday Tribune: "Shirley never got over that. She was full of love but she could be laughing away one minute and the next she would be very sad. She was frightened she'd end up schizophrenic like her mother."

The friend said Shirley had dabbled in drugs in Ballymena and had cut her arms with blades.

Another friend said that while Shirley was "the life-andsoul of the party", she feared sexual intimacy with men.

Her foster sister, Joanne Corry, broke down in tears as she read a tribute. She had always wanted a wee sister and had never been so happy as the day Shirley was brought into their home: "We shared a room and played all day and fought. I was delighted to have you as my little sister."

Emily Dickinson's poem, If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking, was read by a member of the Brady family. Ballymena councillors Declan O'Loan (SDLP) and Monica Digney (Sinn Fein) attended the funeral. O'Loan said: "It was important to be here because of Shirley's difficult life and sad end."

Digney said Requiem Mass had been very moving: "It was a magnificent ceremony for a young woman whose last years weren't happy. But, I have to ask, where is the DUP today? Shirley was murdered in Ian Paisley's constituency.

Where is the DUP Mayor of Ballymena, Jim Alexander, or, at the very least, his deputy, Maurice Mills?"

Shirley was buried beside her mother in Milltown Cemetery.