Burmese girl, 7, died a painful death 'after she was raped and brutally beaten by her Utah neighbor', experts testify after police officer chokes up on the stand
- Hser Ner Moo's body was found in a pool of blood in the bottom of Esar Met's shower in Salt Lake City, Utah in March 2008
- 26-year-old Met, also a Burmese refugee, has finally gone on trial this week after language barriers stalled the process
- Her heartbroken parents sobbed as they testified in the trial, while a police officer who helped with the search wiped away tears on the witness stand
- Child abuse expert testified on Friday that the girl's body showed rare and painful injuries that indicated a brutal sexual assault
- The family came to Utah after fleeing the Burmese jungle and moving to a crowded refugee camp in Thailand which later burned to the ground
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A seven-year-old Burmese refugee who was allegedly raped and fatally beaten by her Utah neighbor suffered an excruciating death, a child abuse expert has testified.
Hser Ner Moo was found dead in a pool of her blood at the bottom of 26-year-old Esar Met's shower in Salt Lake City in March 2008.
On Friday, child abuse expert Lori Frasier testified on the fourth day of Met's trial, which has been full of heartbreaking details revealing the alleged torture the little girl suffered
'This would have been terrible pain for her,' Frasier testified, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. 'This kind of injury would have required force.'
On trial: Esar Met, a Burmese refugee, listens to proceedings through a translator in court on Thursday as his murder trial continues. He is accused of kidnapping, raping and killing his seven-year-old neighbor
Loss: This photo of Hser Ner Moo, who was raped and beaten, was displayed at Met's murder trial. On Friday, a child abuse expert said that the little girl had likely suffered a painful death at the hands of her killer
Frasier explained that injuries to Hser's genitals were extremely rare and probably caused by forceful penetration. Images of the girl's injuries were shown to the jury.
There was no DNA evidence found on the body to suggest a sexual assault took place, but Frasier said that didn't mean one hadn't taken place.
'It may have been a crime of power rather than a crime of sex,' Frasier said. 'There are a number of reasons for DNA not to be present.'
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ShareHser also suffered a broken left arm that Frasier said would have caused great pain.
But defense attorneys questioned Frasier, pointing out that she specializes in abuse suffered by children who are alive, and is not licensed to perform autopsy exams, the Tribune reported.
It came after emotional testimony by Mikal Wersland, a sergeant with the South Salt Lake Police Department who had helped search for the little girl after she vanished on March 31, 2008.
Emotional: South Salt Lake Police's Mikal Wersland became emotional as he spoke about the desperate search for Hser in March 2008 and how he and his colleagues feared she would be found dead
Passionate: He described searching all of the houses - and his heartbreak when he heard she had been found
He fought tears in court on Thursday as he recounted how a colleague called him to say they had found the girl's body the day after they began looking for her.
'They told me they found what they believed to be blood evidence in the stairwell of one of the apartments we hadn’t been able to search,' he said, using a tissue to wipe tears.
'I just thought about this poor family and having to - just the thought of having to tell this family what had happened to their little girl.'
Hser's heartbroken parents gave their own emotional testimony earlier this week as they sobbed about how much they missed their only daughter.
'She was my one, my only one,' her father, Cartoon Wah, said through an interpreter on Wednesday, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Crime scene: A photo shown in court reveals blood in the basement bathroom where Hser was found
Gruesome: Another image shows blood against a wall in the bathroom where her body was discovered
Cordoned off: A photo shows the front of Met's apartment in Salt Lake City where Hser was found dead
Scene: Hser and her family lived at this South Salt Lake complex, where she reportedly befriended Met
'I have lost many things in my life, but this was the biggest loss of my life... Now I have to carry on living with this broken heart and support my family.'
Before moving to Utah, the family had fled the Burmese jungle for a crowded refugee camp in Thailand, which later burned down.
Her father recounted their fears as they waited for news of their missing daughter.
'The night [she disappeared] my wife was crying,' Wah said. 'It had been too long, so we assumed, we thought maybe our daughter is already dead.'
'I'll never forget the look on [the mother's] face,' caseworker Carrie Pender told the court on Thursday. 'Just the fear in her eyes that she couldn't find her little girl.'
His wife, Pearlly Wah, sobbed as she added: 'This is the biggest loss of my life. If you gave me the whole world of happiness to exchange for this little girl, I would say no. Nothing can pay me back because I only had one. Whenever I see little girls run around, it breaks my heart.'
In court: Met faces life in prison if he is found guilty of kidnapping and murdering his young neighbor
Painful memories: Carrie Pender, the family's caseworker, testified on Thursday and recalled the look of pain on Hser's mother's face as the family desperately searched for the missing girl in March 2008
Hser was killed on March 31, 2008 after she wandered from her parents' home at the same complex, telling an aunt she was going to play downstairs.
But when she failed to return home, her parents grew anxious when they couldn't find her.
The couple, who only speak their native language of Karen, contacted their case worker who in turn called police. The little girl's body was found the following day.
Met, a 26-year-old Burmese refugee, was arrested and charged with first-degree felony counts of child kidnapping and aggravated murder.
If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. Prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty due to the extreme language barriers that have already stalled the case for so long.
Devastated: Pearlly Wah weeps as photographs taken at her daughter's crime scene are shown in a preliminary hearing in November 2012. The distraught mother also testified at his trial on Wednesday
Loss: Cartoon Wah, pictured in 2012, said losing his daughter has been the worst experience of his life
Defense lawyers say no one saw Met take or kill Hser and that DNA found from his jacket and from beneath her fingernails were from games the two had shared in days before the murder.
Met, who had also been living in a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand before moving to the U.S., moved to the apartment about a month before the slaying.
He lived at the house with four roommates, but defense attorneys say they shunned him because he was a Muslim man of Indian origin.
The roommates were arrested on April 1, 2008 but they were later released. Police said they had not been home at the time of the killing and did not know her body was in the basement bathroom.
Met has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial is expected to continue through January 24.
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