The body of Pam Fitzpatrick was cremated at about 2.30pm local time after a short ceremony with Buddhist monks and local officials.

Kevin Fitzpatrick, his youngest daughter Jenny and three sons - Alan, Timothy and Robin - plus a couple of family friends gathered at Wat Klong Toey Nai in central Bangkok.

Representatives of the Thai police and Australian embassy officials, including Consul Robin Hamilton-Coates, attended the service, which lasted just half an hour.

The body of Fitzpatrick - shot in the town of Kanchanaburi early last Monday - lay in a white casket, while monks chanted and prayed that her soul would rest in peace.

The weather in Bangkok was wet and overcast, and seemed to mirror the mood of mourners at the service.

The family, originally from South Africa, said farewell to a girl who they described as happy and bubbly.

She was a nurse who had cared for paraplegics - a young woman in the prime of her life.

Her sister Jenny, who had been about to travel through Laos with Pam, was said to be "utterly distraught" at Pam's death, which occurred right beside her.

 After the service, Kevin Fitzpatrick - who shifted to Australia from Johannesburg because of the violence there - was helped down the temple steps by the Australian consul.

Hamilton-Coates said the family had requested a quiet service and hoped that their privacy would be respected. The Fitzpatricks are due to return home to Brisbane within the next few days.

Investigators have had little success so far in locating the gunman who shot Fitzpatrick.

The nurse was with her sister Jenny, 20, and friends at a bar on Kanchanaburi's main tourist strip when the drama occurred. They were having a "last drink" after watching the Australia-Brazil World Cup match early last Monday morning.

Witnesses say two young men rode by on a motorbike.

The man on the back of the bike fired four shots into the Up2U bar.

Three bullets hit the back wall of the bar, while the other struck Fitzpatrick in the neck.

The 26-year-old collapsed, critically injured. The bullet severed her spinal cord and lodged in her head.

She was rushed to a local clinic then transferred to a hospital in Bangkok, but died on Wednesday evening.

More than 60 police have been seconded to look into the case, but the motive for the shooting is unknown.

Several hours earlier there was a dispute between five or six local men and the operators of an adjacent bar. But police have so far been unable to tie that to the tragic events several hours later.

Witnesses said the man at the front of the motorbike wore a full-face helmet, which was unusual and may have been used to hide his identity.

The gunmen, thought to be in his early 20s, did not wear a helmet. He was described by one eyewitness as handsome.

Police have a sketch of this man. Tests are now being done on the bullet removed from Fitzpatrick after her death.

The bullet and the gun will be vital evidence. Police are trying to determine if the weapon was a distinctive handgun.

"If it is a Colt revolver, it should make it easier for us to find the shooter because they are not that common," Police Colonel Vorapat Vadhanavisala said last week.

Investigators say it was possible the two young men were simply "firing the gun" at random.

The Up2U bar is owned by a 30-year-old local woman, but she has provided limited leads for investigators.

Australian officials in Bangkok, including Ambassador Bill Paterson, have lobbied senior police to solve the crime.

Jim Pollard

The Nation