missing

Over 1,000 volunteers came out to search for a missing girl, Hser Nay Moo, 7. She went missing Monday afternoon at an apartment complex about 10 blocks from where I live. Moo and her family were Burmese refugees, trying to get along in the states. I spent 12 hours near the apartment complex covering the search effort. It was unbelievable how many people were selfless enough to spend hours searching for this girl. They would be broken into teams and cover a couple block area, canvassing everything. They would look in trash cans, drawers, under sticks and in sewers.

At about 7 p.m. Hser Nay Moo's father spoke to the press at the command post for the search at an LDS church. He thanked everyone for helping in the search and begged for her to be returned. After this, I got my photos in and left since the search was winding down for the night. About a half hour later my photo editor called and told me that they had taped off the apartment complex, making it a crime scene. On the short drive back to the complex, I was trembling. I had become emotionally invested in this story and didn't want to see it end like this.

At the same time as the press conference where the father wiped tears from his eyes, blocks away at the apartment complex police found the tenant home in the only apartment they didn't search in the complex. The tenant, who was also Burmese, gave police consent to search the house. In the basement of the house, they found her dead.

The scene went from hopeful support with searches and ribbons to candlelight mourning. Search teams showed up at night outside the apartment complex as the news was breaking. A group of women on a team who never met before hugged each other and wept. Citizens prayed, created a small memorial of lights, flowers, stuffed animals and "missing" posters for Hser Nay Moo and her family.

Something like this always seems to show the dichotomy of human nature. Beauty and evil. It shows me how so many strangers can come together from around the state to show selfless support. How over a thousand can volunteer their time for people that don't even know. And at the same time, it just leaves me asking the question: "Why?"

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