ZION, IL (KSDK) — A cancer patient beaten to death outside of a treatment center in Illinois earlier this week was apparently the victim of a random attack.

Shannon Vincel, 46, of Springfield, Missouri woman will be laid to rest in St. Louis on Tuesday.

“She was a gentle loving, sweet girl, and she would’ve never hurt anybody,” said Anita Adams, Shannon’s mother.

Her family says Vincel had been battling breast cancer with everything she had, even undergoing a double mastectomy. Adam says her daughter traveled to Zion, Illinois Monday night for her latest round of radiation treatments.

It was around 9:30 p.m. Monday night that Vincel and another patient were waiting for a hospital shuttle to take them to a nearby the treatment center.

“She thought she was in a safe area because it was on hospital grounds,” said Adam.

Suddenly, a man approached and began to attack Vincel with a blunt object. Her family says it wasn’t a robbery and that there’s no clear motive. Adam says there were video surveillance cameras, but so far police don’t have any leads.

“He was just pure evil. So it would be wonderful to get this– I can’t even call him a person. I don’t know what I can call him. If that thing were off the streets. Because no one is safe with people like that out walking around,” said Adam.

The Cancer Centers of America is now offering a $25,000 reward for information surrounding the case.