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Despite spending most of her seven years as a refugee in Thailand, Hser Ner Moo fit right in as an ordinary second-grader in the U.S. She loved the color pink, princess stickers and even had a silly nickname, "Monkey."

That was before she disappeared.

Now, hers is a face recognized by most every Utahn.

A week to the day after she disappeared, an estimated 500 mourners, including Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and his wife, Mary Kaye Huntsman, attended her funeral Monday at the South Salt Lake LDS Haven Ward Chapel.

The number of mourners was perhaps larger than Utah's entire Burmese refugee community to which she belonged.

"It broke our hearts to where tears flowed," said her mother, Pearlly Wah, through an interpreter. "What has happened is the first bad thing that has happened to our family, and it is the worst."

The little girl disappeared March 31 after leaving her apartment in the South Parc Townhomes, 2250 S. 500 East, about 2 p.m. Hundreds of people joined in the search for the girl. Her body was found about 7 p.m. April 1 in nearby Apartment 472, the last apartment in the complex to be searched.

Police detained five men who lived there; four were later released and one, 21-year-old Esar Met, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder. The charge carries the possibility of the death penalty.

Court documents allege that Met admitted to killing Hser Ner Moo during an altercation at the apartment. Moo was dead within an hour of leaving her home, police said.

Met allegedly put Hser Ner Moo's body in his basement bathroom and went to an aunt's home in the Fort Union area, where he was arrested April 1.

A spokeswoman for the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office said charges are expected to be filed today.

Many of the police investigators and volunteer searchers showed up at the funeral to pay their respects to the child they labored to find.

Born in the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand, the 7-year-old arrived with her family in Utah in August hoping to start a new life. Utah's Burmese refugees are primarily recent arrivals to Utah who have spent years if not decades in refugee camps in Thailand after escaping the military government of Burma, now known as Myanmar.

Hser Ner Moo was enrolled at Woodrow Wilson Elementary, but the school was on break the day the alleged murder occurred.

A devout Christian family, her parents and brothers stood next to the second-grader's casket before the funeral began as a flute sang out the melody of "Amazing Grace" Monday morning. They were dressed colorfully in traditional woven shirts, harkening back to the customs of their Burmese homeland. Hser Ner Moo was dressed in soft pink.

Described as a bright girl, the 7-year-old would play teacher with her friends at the apartment complex.

"I think of all that she would have been," her older brother Kyi Kyi Po wrote in a letter that was read by a translator. He said he would have liked to see her become an engineer or a teacher. "I will always want to see you again, but I don't know when I will."

Hser Ner Moo's uncle, Say Bloh, used words from the Bible to express his pain during the service.

"For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"

The family repeatedly praised and thanked the community for its help during their horrible time.

A graveside service was held at Elysian Burial Gardens near Murray and drew people touched by the girl's death.

Walking with a cane and carrying a clear vase full of red roses, Salt Lake City resident Delores Lamph paid her respects.

"The day I saw her picture in the paper, I just fell in love with her because I love kids," Lamph said. "She just captured me. She was such a sweetheart. . . . When I looked in her coffin today, I was just very saddened."

Hser Ner Moo's parents sat with their sons near the girl's flower-draped brown casket during the funeral ceremony. The Wah family dabbed tears from their eyes before praying.

Referencing a Thai military tradition of "releasing" someone from his or her worldly duties at death, Carrie Pender, a family friend, stood by the casket and spoke of symbolically freeing Hser Ner Moo from her studies at Wilson Elementary.

"You are released to attend classes with Heavenly Father in heaven," she said.