Her grandmother fell to her knees and cried"Why,why?"at the site where Ms Herron's body was found.
Ms Herron was raised in Melbourne's northern suburbs in a Greek-Australian family. She had a brother and a sister.
A note left by her family reads:“To our beloved Courky. Forever in our hearts. Find internal peace with Pappou[Greek for grandfather]. You will be forever safe with him.”
Her uncle and aunty wrote,“You have been taken from us too soon. May you find rest and peace.”
The family also released a statement:"We are heartbroken by the loss of our daughter. Courtney has a family who love and care about her. The loss has devastated our entire family."
Friends said Ms Herron had been sleeping in Royal Park. She was a private schoolgirl who had left Genazzano College in year 9 and had told friends she'd previously worked for the Department of Health and Human Services in Preston.
They described her as a kind-hearted young woman in the grips of addiction who dreamed of getting clean.
“She knew her family loved her and she said how lucky she was,how grateful she was that they tried to help her,” her friend Jessica Bateman said.
“She was a person at the end of the day,just like all of us. She was just trying to get by.”
Ms Herron had told Ms Bateman that she was on waiting lists for housing and could not get on the methadone program,prescribed to treat heroin addiction,without a stable address.
She was scared of withdrawal,Ms Bateman said,but wanted to try to get clean. She had been sleeping on friends'couches for several months before sleeping rough.
“Addiction is a disease,” Ms Bateman said.
“It only progresses – you end up in jail,an institution,homeless or dead – and we as a community have to band together because it’s so detrimental to the addict to feel so marginalised and to have this drug-using stigma.”
Ms Herron's former boyfriend,Ahmet Ozkurt,said she had a great sense of humour.
However,he said she had struggled with addiction for about seven years,which had strained her relationship with family and friends who had battled to help her back onto the right path.
“They tried to help many times,[picking her up] from hospital,her mother and grandparents,but they couldn’t stop the drugs,” he said.
The pair broke up last year,but he said they kept in contact.
"She lived with me for two years in a house in Pascoe Vale ... I was looking after her all the time."
Mr Ozkurt,30,originally from Turkey,said the pair met through a mutual friend and were together for three years. He last spoke to Ms Herron a few months ago.
"She was alright and doing good but I don't know what kind of people she hung out with,"he said.
He found out about Ms Herron's death when he saw her picture on the news over the weekend.
"I still can't believe it. It's so cruel,so terrible. I'm just shocked.
"She was not a bad person,she was a good person. She was funny and friendly."
It’s understood Ms Herron was well-known to local mental health and drug and alcohol treatment services in inner-city Melbourne,including a history of engagement with the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
She had been accessing treatment there for several years. It’s believed Ms Herron’s grandmother was one of the last family members to try to care for the young woman before she became homeless.
Ms Bateman said she saw her two weeks ago at the train station in St Albans when Ms Bateman was stranded with no money on her myki card.
This was how Ms Bateman had met her about nine months ago – on the train from St Albans – and Ms Bateman had topped up Ms Herron’s card so she wouldn’t get fined by ticket inspectors.
“She returned the favour,” Ms Bateman said.
“I would have been stranded.”
A vigil will be held for Ms Herron on Friday at 5.30pm at Royal Park.