Vigil Held For 13-Year-Old Found Dead At Rosemont Park

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - A candlelight vigil was held Wednesday night for a 13-year-old girl found dead at Rosemont Community Park a day earlier.

The vigil, which was attended by Jessica Funk-Haslam's grieving mother, Tara Funk-Haslam, was to be followed by a community meeting Thursday hosted by Sacramento County Sheriff's Sgt. Jim Barnes at Atonement Lutheran Church.

Sheriff's Flyer Seeking Information

Asked what she though about dozens of people out to rememeber Jessica, her mother said "happy but it's sad at the same time because people are coming out when she's gone instead of when she is here."

Jessica was found early Tuesday morning inside a dugout at the park, the site of Wednesday's vigil. The coroner's report Wednesday said Funk-Haslam suffered blunt force trauma to the head, a stab wound and asphyxiation.

Allen Porter, Jessica's father, was devastated by the news of his daughter's death. She was an eighth-grader at Elbert Einstein Middle School, near where her body was found.

"She's gone and I'm never going to see her," he told CBS13. "She had a great smile. She had a great sense of humor."

Homicide investigators are questioning Jessica's friends, family and classmates for clues into what happened to her.

"They're trying to find all of her friends and see if they knew anything because somebody had to have seen her between the time she left her house and when it happened," Porter said.

Kiersten Brown, a close friend of Jessica's said she could "Make anyone laugh and smile in the worst of times and it's definitely going to be different without her, but we'll get through, I know we will."

Tara Funk-Haslam says Jessica left her home Monday night after they'd argued at about 5:30 p.m., the last time anyone says they saw her alive.

"She was wanting to go out and see somebody. She wouldn't tell me who," Tara said Wednesday. "I had tried to keep her home too much. I didn't want her to go out at night."

A man who lives near Rosemont park says he overheard a male and young female talking in the park about 2:30 in the morning but couldn't see anyone in the dark.

"I heard some people over there kinda talking," Justin Gray said. "I was like 'oh I better get out of here and four hours later my girlfriend called me and told me what happened."

Wednesday, families who played in the park joined in the mourning over Jessica even if they didn't know her.

"(It's) where children come to play," said Stacy Jetton, who lives neary the park. "I'm just really glad it wasn't actually a child that found her."

Jessica's father says he wants answers but knows nothing will ever bring his daughter back.

"She was wonderful. I mean, she had problems all kids have and not listening as much as they should, but she was wonderful," he said.