A Mooresville teacher whose body was found in Mexico last month was laid to rest in Davidson on Saturday.
Patrick Braxton-Andrew disappeared in October following a walk in the small hiking village of Urique. He was expected to meet his brother, Kerry, in Mexico City, but he never showed.
According to the Mexican newspaper, El Diario, Braxton-Andrew may have been mistaken for a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. The 34-year-old was found in a shallow grave; the Sinaloa Cartel was believed to be behind the murder.
Braxton-Andrew was an eighth-grade Spanish teacher at Woodlawn School in Mooresville and a 2006 graduate of Davidson College.
Friends and family gathered Saturday at Davidson College Presbyterian Church to honor his life.
Before Braxton-Andrew's body was found, the town of Davidson pulled together in the hope of bringing him home. Neighbors put up ribbons.
"Davidson is such a small town community that when one of our own has something going on whether you know that person or not, the whole town tends to rally around that person," Leigh-Ann Mueller previously told NBC Charlotte.
The U.S. State Department is providing help to the Mexican government to bring Braxton-Andrew's killer to justice.