'We miss her so much,' grandma says of slain 6-year-old

Jack Darger,5, is held by his mother, Emma, during a vigil to show support for the family of Sierra Newbold at West Jordan Elementary School on Friday, June 29, 2012. Sierra Newbold was found dead in a canal near her West Jordan home Tuesday.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

“It's an unbelievable thing. We can't hardly get our heads around it. You try to figure what and you don't get an answer. I can't understand how anyone can do something like this to a little girl — or anybody.”

Sierra's grandmother Frances Newbold

WEST JORDAN — It's hard to put into words what the loss of a bright-eyed, 6-year-old girl with freckles can do to her family.

One day, Sierra Newbold is dancing and dressing up in "fairy costumes" with her kid sister and the next day, she's gone.

"You don't even know hardly how to feel or think — it just upsets your whole world," Sierra's grandmother Frances Newbold said Friday.

"The first day was just so devastating. ... You finally dry up. You run out of tears."

As police investigate what happened to Sierra before she was sexually assaulted, killed and left in a canal near her home, her grandmother said she takes comfort in knowing that whatever cruel acts led to the child's death are over now.    

"We know where she is now and we're happy that she's out of any misery or pain she could have experienced. We miss her so much," Newbold told the Deseret News. "She was a vivacious little girl ... full of life."

That life was remembered Friday at a viewing in anticipation of Saturday's funeral, and at a candlelight vigil attracting about 200 people to Sierra's neighborhood school, only blocks away from the home from which she was taken.

Patty Belleso came to the vigil with her family "to show support because we have little ones too," she said. "Nobody deserved that. I don't think it's fair what happened to her."

The support for Sierra exhibited Friday was also laced with the fear that remains in the neighborhood.

"I know that people are afraid to let their kids go out, me being one of them," said Sharan Dawn Kanniainen. "I lock my doors during the day now. I won't let my kids go out," she said.

Just before 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, family members called police to report that the girl was missing from her home at 2383 W. 7095 South. Officers started searching the area and soon found her dead in a nearby canal.

West Jordan Police Chief Doug Diamond declined to provide details about her condition, but said there was "not a significant amount of trauma on the body." An autopsy later concluded her death was a homicide and that she'd been sexually assaulted.

"It's an unbelievable thing," Newbold said. "We can't hardly get our heads around it. You try to figure what and you don't get an answer. I can't understand how anyone can do something like this to a little girl — or anybody."

source: desert news