WILLARD, Mo. (AP) - More than 200 people attended funeral services for a 15-year-old southwest Missouri girl whose body was found in Truman Lake.
The body of Khighla (KY'-luh) Parks was found Sept. 30 in Truman Lake.
Services were held Friday at Clear Creek Baptist Church in Willard. Her coffin was wheeled out with a saddle on top as friends and relatives wept. Two black mares pulled a wagon bearing her coffin to the cemetery.
Khighla walked away from the Willard-area home on Sept. 20. Her body was found Sept. 30 by boaters in Truman Lake. A 47-year-old Springfield man, Anthony Balbirnie, has been charged in Benton County with abandonment of a corpse, a felony. Authorities are continuing to investigate her death which has been called a homicide.
Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.news-leader.com