MERRITT, B.C. - Hundreds of residents of the tiny B.C. Interior town of Merritt gathered Sunday to remember three "angels" who were a "tribute to their mother."

The memorial service was held for 10-year-old Kaitlynne Schoenborn and her brothers, eight-year-old Max, and five-year Cordon, who were found dead by their mother April 6.

About 300 people attended the service where community pastors and the children's teachers and principal spoke.

"They were special children and it's a real tribute to their mother,'' teacher Janna Heffernan told the crowd.

Heffernan taught Max and called him one of those students who comes along only once in a while.

Cordon, a Kindergarten student at Diamond Vale elementary school, always had a big smile, recalled principal Val O'Flaherty.

"It made him a joy to be around,'' she said.

O'Flaherty said the children shouldn't be defined by their deaths, but by how they were in life.

The service was held three weeks to the hour that the children's mother found their bodies in her mobile home.

It was almost a day after the deaths that police told the public they were looking for the father of the three children, Allan Schoenborn.

Ten days after the deaths a hunter came upon a dehydrated and frostbitten Schoenborn in the bushes just kilometres from Merritt's town centre.

He has since been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection to the deaths of his children.

Pastor Dave Strugnell of the Crossroads Community Church said the memorial service was a chance for the community to bring some of their emotional turmoil to an end and celebrate the children's lives.

"Closure is all part of an emotional balancing, part of a healing process,'' he said.

"We are never going to forget those children: Kaitlynne, Max and Cordon,'' Strugnell said.

A private memorial service was held last weekend for the immediate family.

Mother, Darcie Clarke, remains in seclusion following the deaths of her children.

The sensational case and the hunt for Schoenborn dominated headlines across the country.

He's scheduled to return to court May 2 on charges of uttering threats, stemming from an incident at his children's school a few days before the murders. He is also charged with escaping custody.

RCMP have come under fire for not warning the public that Schoenborn was on the loose until the day after the bodies were discovered.

The case has also raised questions about the justice system because Schoenborn was released on bail in connection with the school incident over the objections of RCMP and despite a peace bond and three arrests in the week prior to the killings.

While there were about 500 chairs sent up in Merritt's civic centre, about 300 people turned out for the service.