Hundreds mourn slain girl

RANDOLPH, Vt., July 8 (UPI) -- Hundreds of people showed up at a Vermont high school Tuesday for a wake for a 12-year-old girl found buried in a shallow grave last week.

Brooke Bennett was to be buried Wednesday, a few days before what would have been her 13th birthday, NECN.com reported. The funeral service also was to be at Union High School in Randolph.

The girl's uncle, Michael Jacques, has been charged with kidnapping and appeared in federal court Monday. A prosecutor said her death had been ruled a homicide but would not release the cause of death.

Prosecutors have alleged Jacques wanted to recruit her into a sex ring.

Ray Gagnon, Brooke's former stepfather, has been charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly hampering the investigation into the girl's disappearance. She was missing for more than a week before her body was found near her uncle's house.

Jacques allegedly went to great lengths to conceal what he was doing, including making changes on Brooke's MySpace page so she would appear to have gone off with someone she met on line, WCAX-TV in Burlington reported.

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