Friends and family of the young man whose body was found in a Burnaby park earlier this month believe he was murdered – and want the culprits to give themselves up.

About 30 people gathered at Robert Burnaby Park to remember Branson Sanders, a smart, good-natured 20-year-old who they say didn't deserve to die.

"If you call yourself a man, turn yourself in," said longtime friend Chris Lago, who treated Sanders like a brother in Mulberry Place, the low-income housing complex the boys grew up in while they went to Cariboo Hill Secondary School.

"This was a tragedy that should never have happened," said Shari Blanthorn, Sanders's neighbour, who said she saw the young man grow up. "I hope they find the person who did this because the person doesn't have a soul."

Police haven't said Sanders' death is a murder, just a suspicious death, but the case is being handled by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

Sanders's body was discovered on Dec. 2 by a person walking their dog in Robert Burnaby Park, a wooded area south of Burnaby Lake.

The park is very close to Mulberry Place, and Sanders would have known the woods well, friends said.

"Is it safe for our kids to be walking now? Safe to go through the trails to get to school? We don't know why this happened," Blanthorn said.

Friends and family laid flowers under a white cross nailed to a tree written with Sanders's name.

"I'm still in denial," Sanders's cousin Keisha McGinn said. "Seeing the cross is making it real to me, but I don't want to believe it."

Lago said he remembered playing in Robert Burnaby Park with Sanders as a kid.

"He'd always try to make you laugh. He'd always have a smart comment to say," he remembered.

Lago said Sanders had strayed from his boyhood friends to the wrong crowd after graduating high school.

"It's just bad friends," Lago said. "We backed off and he eventually saw the friends he was with he didn't want to be a part of them, and he wanted out, but it wasn't easy."

Lago said a month ago Sanders wanted to reconnect, saying he wanted to return to culinary school.

"This kid was so smart. He just got taken away too soon," Lago said.

Police are waiting for the results of an autopsy to determine more information about how Sanders died.