Local News in Brief : Schoolmates Attend Slain Girl’s Funeral

Schoolmates, some friends and some strangers grieved with family and friends at Friday’s funeral for Sara Nan Hodges, the 7-year-old Newhall girl found strangled last week at a neighbor’s home. “She had a whole life ahead of her,” said 11-year-old Nick Phavini of Santa Clarita, who rode buses for an hour with his friend, Trevor Bell, to join 90 people at Eternal Valley Mortuary. Trevor, also 11, fought tears speechlessly; he had met Sara when his contractor-father worked in the neighborhood.

By the white casket draped in pink flowers, Sara’s mother, Linda, eulogized the girl who “used to laugh in her sleep, and she was the only one among us who could carry a tune.” Hodges read aloud two of her poems, one of them reasoning that because Sara died young, she was spared most of life’s difficulties.