By Guy Kelly
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

If he could be anywhere, Corey DePooter would be outdoors.

The 17-year-old Columbine student loved to hike through mountains and along rivers, and if the fish were biting, things couldn't get much better.

At the end of Corey's funeral Tuesday at Trinity Christian Center, a video that celebrated his life ended with the young man's favorite destination: "Gone Fishing."

"He would always tell me about his wonderful fishing trips," said Jennifer Davis, a friend of Corey's from Columbine. "He was such a neat guy. It really hurts a lot that he's gone. I really have a piece of my heart with Corey DePooter."

Davis and 500 others laughed about Corey's outdoor adventures Tuesday, and they cried over the unspeakable evil that ended so many young lives last week.

"We must not bury our pain, but we must allow our pain to move us to change," said the Rev. Billy Epperhart, who has helped at several funerals for Columbine students.

"My heart has been torn tremendously seeing the grief of these families," he said.

But Corey took such joy in life that his friend Austin Eubanks couldn't help but laugh about a fishing trip they took together to Texas that netted only five fish, but a lifetime of memories.

"People said he was the kind of guy people like to be around," Austin said. "I know I sure did. Corey was always able to pick our spirits up in a gloomy situation."

Corey was in the school library last week. He looked up at Landon Jones Jr. and said, "See ya later."

But he never did.

Corey was among 12 students and a teacher shot to death by two gunmen who also killed themselves.

On Tuesday some grieved over what they said was their failure to protect students, including Denver Police Capt. Don Saltzman, a family friend of the DePooter's.

"Your passing is unforgivable and justice will be sought," Saltzman said.

The Rev. John Conrad said there is little comfort now for the pain and grief friends and family are going through.

"What person here can tell me there is no such thing as evil in our world," he said.

But there is beauty and kindness in the struggle to cope, acts of humanity that give people faith to go on.

"Today we place our heart and our hope in a future God can bring us," he said. "From the pain God brings something that is beautiful."

Saltzman and Corey went big-game hunting and fishing together, trips that Corey could hardly wait to take.

"'He was the only kid I knew who would spend days planning for an overnight trip," Saltzman said. "He remained ever the optimist and the camp comedian."

Corey had a city life, too. He was a golfer, and a wrestler for a while at Columbine. His friends said he had incredible skating and boarding skills, doing stunts no one could believe.

He wanted to go to college and join the Marines. He was strong, but friendly, and he could get a laugh out of just about anyone, his language arts teacher Kevin Johnston said.

DePooter usually would walk into a classroom wearing a baseball cap pulled down over his forehead, and push it up a bit so they could see his face.

Johnston recalled the time when Corey and a friend made a video that was supposed to have something to do with Dickens' Great Expectations.

Corey played Napoleon's love interest, Josephina, wearing "something resembling a grass skirt and a couple of coconuts."

"There was always a glimmer in his eye and a smile on his face," Johnston said.

His friends said a poem in the program for his funeral captured where Corey's spirit would likely be.

"Let me go back from the traveled road

Away from crowds pushing,

To a quiet hill where the woods are still,

Serene 'neath a clean, blue sky."