‘Not God’s Will,’ Minister Says of Leanora Wong Death : Memorial: Slain woman is eulogized as generous, friendly in services attended by more than 200 people.

More than 200 people filled a chapel and spilled out to the sidewalk Wednesday at a memorial service for Leanora Annette Wong, as a minister told them the slaying “was not an act of God.”

At the hourlong service, the Rev. Warren Jarrard told the subdued crowd of family and friends that he shared with them “the common emptiness of loss.” The question most in his mind in the days since her killing was, “Why?”

Jarrard said he had no good answer, but told them that “Lea’s death was not an act of God, not God’s will.”

Family member David Fong offered a biographical sketch of the 23-year-old UC Riverside graduate, who he said was at once shy and friendly, frugal and generous, and an integral part of a large, extended family that stretched from Washington to Hong Kong.

Longtime friend Hans Kaufhold of Newport Beach announced the establishment of a scholarship fund in Wong’s name, probably for Ramona High School graduates who want to attend UC Riverside, as Wong did. Like other friends and family members, Kaufhold wore a pink ribbon pinned to the shoulder of his jacket in memory of the young woman he called “my closest friend since junior high school.”

Most of those attending the memorial declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding the prosecution and parole of the suspect in Wong’s slaying, Edward Patrick Morgan Jr., on earlier rape charges.

But George Su, 23, of Riverside, said, “I think that maybe they could have done better on the last offense, when charges were dropped for insufficient evidence.”

In that case, authorities said a 24-year-old Huntington Beach woman first said she was assaulted by several other men and later accused Morgan of the attack.

Su, who played on the Ramona High School tennis team with Wong and later attended UC Riverside, said that case “should be a lesson for all the women who have been abused to come forward to prevent this from happening.”

Su said he hoped Morgan now would “be put behind bars forever.”

Christina Fuentes, 23, of Riverside, who attended high school with Wong, said, “I don’t think (Morgan) ever should have been let out. Jail doesn’t do anything to them. They don’t correct themselves.

“To kill an innocent person . . . how can someone just beat a person to death?” Fuentes said tearfully. “I just can’t imagine that. . . . I remember her smile, her laughter. That’s something her family is not going to have any more.”