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Posted: 7:23 PM- Seven-year-old Hser Ner Moo apparently tried to fight the man who allegedly beat, raped and strangled her last week at a South Salt Lake apartment complex.
An autopsy revealed she was clutching hair in her right hand similar to that of accused killer Esar Met. And the autopsy showed Hser Ner Moo had been beaten about the head, neck, and torso. Some injuries were consistent with strangulation or suffocation.
That information and more - including evidence of sexual assault and a bloody footprint matching Esar Met - was included in documents charging the 21-year-old with aggravated murder. The crime is punishable by death.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Lohra Miller said her office will decide whether to pursue the death penalty following a preliminary hearing. The alleged rape of Hser Ner Moo was included as an aggravating factor in the murder charge.
Esar Met is also charged with child kidnapping, a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison. He is expected to make his first appearance in 3rd District Court on Thursday.
Justin Dolan, an interpreter and spokesman for Hser Ner Moo's family, said Tuesday the family understands the charges and is not opposed to the death penalty for Esar Met.
"They just don't want him to be free," Dolan said. "If that means the death penalty or life without parole, they are comfortable with that."
At about 2 p.m. on March 31, Hser Ner Moo left her family's residence at the South Parc Townhomes, 2250 S. 500 East, and disappeared.
A neighbor told police she saw the girl - wearing a pink shirt, pink skirt and pink jacket - leave her own apartment and walk south, in the direction of apartment No. 472, where Esar Met was living, according to the charging documents. Police have said the girl was dead within an hour of leaving home.
Her disappearance sparked a massive search of the neighborhood, which ended the following evening at about 7 p.m., when FBI agents asked for permission to search No. 472 from four other Burmese men who lived with Esar Met.
The FBI agents found Hser Ner Moo face down in Esar Met's shower, still wearing the pink shirt, pink skirt and pink coat, according to the charges. The agents found a large, bloody plastic bag on the tile floor of the bathroom where Hser Ner Moo was found.
Esar Met's four roommates were arrested April 1, but later released. Police have said the four men were not home when the girl was killed and did not know her body was in Esar Met's basement bathroom.
When police located Esar Met about 10 p.m. on April 1 at his aunt's Cottonwood Heights home, he tried to flee and had to be restrained, charging documents state.
The aunt, Mi Cho, told police her nephew had arrived the day before about 3:30 or 4 p.m. She said he did not bring a change of clothes, but spent the night on the floor. She said he had never before spent the night at her home, according to the charges.
According to a probable cause statement filed with the jail, Esar Met admitted killing Hser Ner Moo while "attempting to confine the victim to the residence by force."
Miller said she had no information about whether Esar Met had lured the girl into his apartment, or whether the crime was planned or opportunistic.
The District Attorney said she did not know if the girl and the defendant knew each other, but that the girl was familiar with the apartment.
According to neighbors, the victim and other children would watch TV and listen to music in the apartment, but indicated it was prior to when the defendant moved in.
Esar Met, who had been living in a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand, moved into the apartment about a month before the slaying, police said. The other men had lived there much longer.
Hser Ner Moo's family came here last August from the same refugee camp.
Miller said language barriers have been "one of the single biggest challenges" to police and prosecutors. But Gov. Jon Huntsman on Tuesday made a court-certified interpreter available to investigators for a week to ease those problems, she said.
Reporter Erin Alberty contributed to this story.