Challenge to Will Expected in Newport Beach Slaying : Shooting: Patricia Kastle wanted her cremated remains sprinkled on Austrian ski slopes. That must wait for her family, but friends plan a memorial.

It was one of Patricia Kastle’s last wishes. When she died, she wanted her cremated remains to be sprinkled on the snowy white ski slopes where she spent the happiest moments of her life, her attorney said.

But that peaceful, final request, as written in her will, belies the brutal death she met this week, when her former husband shot her in the head at close range before killing himself.

What’s more, there may be a dispute over the will.

Friends of the former world-class skier from Austria said Wednesday that they will try to honor her request and hold a memorial service for Kastle, 26, on Friday at 5 p.m. at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Newport Beach.

“She was a fun-loving, honest and sincere person,” said Lillian Ito, a close friend and one of the organizers of the service.

Kastle, once an Olympic skier and the granddaughter of the founder of the well-known ski manufacturer with the same last name, made friends easily and was a smart and humorous woman, friends said.

“She was full of life,” Ito said. “Everybody loved her. She jogged in the morning, never drank and was very health conscious. We’re all devastated by her death.”

Because Kastle’s relatives are in Europe and will not be able to claim the body from the coroner in time for the service, scattering her ashes over the ski slopes will have to wait, friends said.

In fact, the entire execution of the will may be stalled for a while, said Harvey Berman, Kastle’s attorney.

“People are getting poised to dispute the will,” he said.

During Kastle’s divorce, she apparently rewrote her will a couple of times, and the last version made a close friend the sole beneficiary of her dress shop in Lido Village, he said.

Berman declined to say who may contest the will, adding only, “It’s a shame.”

On Wednesday, Kastle’s friends said they are still reeling in pain over the slaying, which occurred Monday when Lee Kastle, her former husband, shot her to death in front of residents at Lido Mobile Home Park in Newport Beach.

Those who knew Lee Kastle, who took his wife’s name in marriage, said he was extremely jealous and possessive of her and depressed by their recent divorce.

His misery turned violent on several occasions, they said.

Kastle so feared him that she obtained a temporary restraining order and even hired a private detective to dig into his past, her attorney said.

She was shocked to find out that Lee Kastle had up to 10 aliases and was apparently eight years older than the 44 years he said he was, Berman said.

What did not surprise Patricia Kastle, however, was her former husband’s violent tendencies, Berman added.

“She knew he might try something like this. I think that’s why she kept revising the will,” he said.

Staff writer Steven R. Churm contributed to this story.