BANGOR —  Friends packed a Bangor courtroom Wednesday to support the family of Nichole Cable during a tense first court appearance by the 15-year-old girl’s accused killer.

Some friends wore yellow T-shirts in honor of Cable. Yellow was Cable’s favorite color, according to her family.

Ashley Pattershall, a sophomore at Old Town High School, shook as she watched the accused, 20-year-old Kyle Dube of Orono, appear before Superior Court Justice William Anderson at Penobscot Judicial Center.

On the sidewalk outside the courthouse after Dube’s brief appearance, Pattershall, who was in Cable’s class at Old Town High School, said Cable was a “great, sweet girl” brimming with energy and humor.

Jessica Brideau, an Old Town High School graduate there to support Cable’s family and friends, said she was good friends with Dube, who she described as a “brother figure and best friend.” She said she was disgusted that he might be responsible for the death of a “beautiful, innocent girl.”

Cable’s family declined to comment immediately after the court appearance. Cable’s mother, with a jacket covering her face, was ushered out of the courthouse and to a waiting truck by her husband and other family and friends.

Jason Wiley, Cable’s stepfather, said during a phone interview later Wednesday afternoon that Cable hoped to become a cosmetologist one day or to attend ITT Technical Institute. He said he wasn’t sure what she wanted to study there.

Cable was known for her close relationships with her friends. If she wasn’t with them, she was talking to them via text messages, her stepfather said. She was known for always having her cellphone close at hand.

“She actually did like high school, mostly hanging out with her friends,” Jason Wiley said, adding that she sometimes cut class to spend time with them.

“She was just in a chorus concert at school a week prior to all this happening,” he said. “She was a very special girl.”

If someone was feeling down, Cable, called “CoCo” by family and close friends, was there to cheer them up, friends said.

Police found Cable’s body near a dirt road off Gilman Falls Avenue in Old Town at about 9:30 p.m. Monday night. Cable died May 12, the day she was last seen, according to the complaint against Dube. He was charged with intentional and knowing murder about 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, but police have not said what led to his arrest.

Investigators have not released details about what, if any, relationship Cable had with her accused killer, but friends say Cable and Dube knew each other and had been hanging out in recent months.

Police have brought the family up to date on the investigation, but Jason Wiley said the family would withhold details until officials make public the events they believe led up Cable’s death.

Speculation and unanswered questions about the killing, such as what role social media might have played, persist after Superior Court Justice William Anderson agreed Wednesday to impound court documents outlining the case against Dube until he appears before a grand jury.