Celebrating life of Martin Gutierrez while saying final goodbye

Family and friends of Martin Gutierrez held a memorial service Sunday evening to remember the 25-year-old who was found in Lady Bird Lake a week after he was reported missing.

Hundreds of balloons were released in honor of Martin's memory. His brother Mitchell Gutierrez led a prayer before letting go.

Memories and stories were shared about Martin among family and friends.

"You know telling those stories of all the shenanigans that we got into. The happy times, and that's how he would want that because he was a happy kid," said Mitchell.

"He was like a brother to me you could just feel the warmth when you walked into a room that Martin was in. He was full of movie quotes and dorky jokes just overall a fun and happy person all the time," said Whitney Rutz, a close friend of Martin's.

The memorial took place on the boardwalk of the Ann and Roy Butler hike and bike trail near the area where Gutierrez's body was found. It's an area that Mitchell says he still feels his brother's presence.

"I know he's here I know and know he's with mom standing right next to her," said Mitchell.

On Nov. 19 the Gutierrez family had been searching endlessly for the 25-year-old, who had last been seen leaving a bar on Rainey Street.

Martin's family and friends searched the surrounding area for nearly a week, missing person's fliers of martin were posted in hopes of finding clues about his disappearance.

On Nov. 26 Austin Police Department and the Austin Fire Department pulled Martin's body out of Lady Bird Lake, about a mile from where his friends last saw him.

The family says the memorial service helps bring some closure but say there's still a lot of unanswered questions.

"I just have this gut feeling there's no evidence there's no answers no concrete anything that we have," said Mitchell. He says before Martin went missing surveillance video of his brother at a bar on Rainey Street showed Martin acting out of character.

"His mannerisms him flaying his arms and acting different now socializing to our friends that's not him I know my brother. He's a social butterfly he talked to everybody, everybody loved him he was a great kid what I saw it wasn't him," said Mitchell.

Something Mitchell says hasn't left his mind. The family says the cause of Martin's death has not yet been determined and they will continue to look for answers while holding on to Martin's memory.

"We just want him to see every message that was written on those balloons. And I believe that when he saw them go up there he will catch them and read each and every one of them and know how much we love him," said Mitchell.

The Gutierrez family says they're still waiting an autopsy and toxicology report which will determine the cause of death.

During the course of the investigation officials say that no evidence pointed to foul play in Martin's disappearance.