Sad Ending to Amber Alert for Seven-Year-Old Hser Nay Moo

April 14, 2008

At first the family of seven-year-old Hser Nar Moo thought that the girl had walked away from her home at South Parc Townhouses at approximately 2 p.m. on Monday, March 31, 2008 in South Salt Lake, Utah, to play outside in the complex, just as she had done many times before.  However, when she went outdoors that afternoon, no one expected that she would never return home.  As time passed and there was no sign of the girl, her family became worried and began looking for her.  Unable to find her, Hser’s family reported the girl missing four hours later.  Hser’s sudden and unexplained disappearance launched a massive and frantic search effort for the young girl that lasted 29 hours, and prompted an Amber Alert being issued at 9:42 the next morning.  She was described as Asian, about 45 pounds and standing 3 feet 8 inches tall, with brown eyes and long black hair.  She was wearing a pink, knee-length dress and pink Croc shoes when she left home.  Although she spoke very little English, the Burmese girl understood some, and was known to play in the neighborhood, sometimes at other nearby apartment buildings.

Hser’s family, as well as the police and volunteers, helped in the search for the girl.  At least two door-to-door canvasses were conducted at the apartment complex where the girl and her family lived, to no avail, and searchers fanned out into adjacent areas where they felt the girl might have wandered off to.  A sleepless night and a restless next day failed to turn up any clues to Hser’s whereabouts.  It wasn’t until 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, that the police and FBI agents learned what had happened to the little girl.

As it turned out, officers returned to apartment 472, located across the parking lot about 50 yards from the apartment where Hser lived.  No one had answered the door at that apartment when officers had previously shown up there, but this time four men, later determined to be from Burma (now called Myanmar) opened the door and allowed the police to enter. 

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