Area real estate agents and brokers gathered yesterday to honor one of their peers who was slain in December while showing a West Baltimore house to a man pretending to be a prospective buyer.

They gathered to dedicate a memorial in Centennial Park near Ellicott City to Lynne McCoy, a real estate agent with O'Conor, Piper & Flynn in Columbia. She was 57 when she died in the Dec. 21 attack in the 800 block of Glen Allen Drive in Hunting Ridge.

"We wanted to do something that would remember the beauty of Lynne's life rather than the tragedy of her death," said a friend Eileen Kessler, an agent with Coldwell Banker in Columbia.

Mrs. McCoy was remembered as a lover of nature and music whose upbeat outlook on life inspired friends, clients and peers. The memorial includes a lily garden, flowering cherry trees, park benches and plaques remembering Mrs. McCoy and her husband, Robert, who died two weeks after his wife was killed.

The memorial is on a grassy slope overlooking Lake Centennial.

Kenny Lamont Brooks, 21, is charged with the rape and murder of Mrs. McCoy. Her body was found in a closet in the home she was trying to sell. City prosecutors say they will seek life without parole for Mr. Brooks if he is convicted.

The slaying stunned Hunting Ridge, a quiet community of single-family homes that has experienced an increase in property crimes in recent months.

The community has formed a 60-member volunteer patrol to help prevent and report crimes. The patrol was planned before Mrs. McCoy's death.