300 Attend Memorial Services for Slain Girl, 7

Scores of neighbors and others from a community devastated by the death of 7-year-old Phoebe Hue-Ru Ho grieved with her shaken parents Saturday night in a South Pasadena church and heard the small girl described as “part of our family.”

“Our whole community is ravaged, our families are diminished and there is a pall of sadness and darkness cast across our community,” said Msgr. Clement J. Connolly, pastor of the Holy Family Church.

Phoebe’s fully clothed body was found Thursday in a weed-covered field in rural Glen Avon in northern Riverside County, seven days after she was abducted while walking to school.

Authorities said she had been strangled; it was not known whether she had been sexually molested. Results of an autopsy will not be ready until mid-week, police said.

Residents call South Pasadena, a city of 25,000, a closely knit community, and more than 300 people attended the ceremony, including many schoolmates of Phoebe’s from the Arroyo Vista School.

Phoebe’s parents, grandparents and her brother and sister attended the service. Visibly shaken, Pheobe’s parents, Kenneth and Sharon Ho, were unable to speak. Friends walked up in small groups to whisper messages of condolence.

At one point, Connolly asked for all of the children to join him at the front of the church. As the youngsters crowded around, including Phoebe’s brother, Damon, 12, and sister, Jennifer, 14, Phoebe’s mother began to sob.

“The anguish of these times reminds us to cherish the gift of children,” Connolly said. “We don’t have explanations and we don’t have any wisdom that the Lord can give us to explain this tragedy, and so we come to the Lord to ask for vision, guidance and strength.”

Those at the service talked with one another about Pheobe’s sunny disposition and her sweetness. “She was very kind,” said Tanya Hoover, a fourth-grader from Arroyo Vista School.

Brielle Oliver, 6, a first-grader there, said she “came to pray.” Brielle’s mother, Shirley, who had known Phoebe, said, “We’re all going through such sorrow but it’s a joy to feel the camaraderie of this community.”

South Pasadena police, meanwhile, reported they had no suspects in the girl’s death.