Corey Haim was laid to rest at an emotional funeral in his home town of Toronto yesterday

More than 200 friends and family members packed into the Steeles College Memorial Chapel in Thornhill, Ontario, to bid farewell to the 80s actor, who was found dead in his mother`s Los Angeles apartment last week. Hundreds of fans who were not allowed into the private service gathered outside to pay tribute to the star.

"There were no Hollywood types there, just friends and family," a friend told People magazine. "It was invite only and very strict about entry. People came without invites and were turned away. The streets for blocks around the chapel were full of police guiding traffic. It was sad. The family is devastated."

The service lasted for 45 minutes and was "very sad but with a lot of laughter," according to one guest Maytal Kotler. Afterwards, the funeral procession was escorted away by seven patrol cars.

Haim`s best friend and frequent co-star Corey Feldman did not attend the funeral because he wanted to give the star`s family space to grieve. Instead, he "mourned privately" in Los Angeles and wrote an open letter to Haim, which he posted on his personal website. Entitled A Letter For The Grave, the note describes Feldman?s devastation at Haim`s death and remembers all the good times they had together.

"First off I am so sorry I am not there with you today," Feldman wrote. "By that I mean my physical body is not with your physical body. However you know that my heart is right at your side. You also know the only reason I am truly not there is out of respect for your mother and her wishes to minimise the media attention as much as possible.

"I miss you so much already. When I think of something funny I don`t know who to tell it to. I find myself trying to call you but then remember your not there. I always feared this day would come, and often rehearsed how to face it. But once confronted with the reality of it, it?s so much more painful than I could have ever imagined."

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Fire Department has released the 911 call Haim`s mother Judy made on the morning of his death. Judy is hysterical in the recording, and can be heard frantically trying to revive her son after she realised he was not breathing. She tells the operator Haim had suffered from a cold and fever in the days before his death.

"I think my son is dead," Judy told the dispatcher. "He`s not breathing. I don`t know what is going on. He had a fever this morning.

"I`m alone with my son and I don`t know what I`m doing. He all of a sudden got out of bed and wanted to go to the bathroom and he fell on the floor and I put him on the bed and that was it. His eyes went backwards."
Haim`s cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy and toxicology tests. He was 38 years old when he died.

sections: Celebrities