BOSTON -- A Cape Cod community gathered Wednesday to remember a local soldier who was killed in Iraq while his mother waits for answers as to how her son really died.

She has asked Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry to help her find the truth.

"We're getting bits and pieces from different people and I don't know what to believe. And when it's your child, you want to know," said Cheryl Ruggiero.

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Her son, Sgt. Matthew Gallagher, 22, of Falmouth, was killed in Iraq's Wasit province on Sunday. He would have been 23 in just a few weeks.

Gallagher was on his second tour of duty and was expected home next month for a two-week visit.

The Army initially told Ruggiero he died in combat, but then later said that was not the case.

Ruggiero, former Army reservist, understands that combat can lead to confusion.

"You know, shots fired, there's people here, there's people there, you duck and cover, maybe you're not seeing ... so, yeah, I can understand the confusion. And I won't know any more until they do an investigation, so I'm trusting the Army to give me the truth," she said.

In the meantime, more than 400 people gathered on Old Silver Beach in North Falmouth on Wednesday to remember Gallagher in a evening memorial vigil.

Just hours before, Ruggiero and other family members met his body at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, his remains arriving in a flag-draped casket.

"That's my baby. I mean, that's my baby in a box. That's my son," she said.