Annie Le Laid to Rest: 'She Contines to Shine'

Sept. 26, 2009— -- As Annie Le's fiance sat with his head bowed, her family and friends filling the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, the Yale University student was remembered for her "fullness of life."

Le was laid to rest today near her Placerville, Calif., hometown where her dreams of finding cures for diseases was born.

Her fiance, Jonathan Widawsky, acted as the head usher for the service attended by more than 600 people.

"If we take those special qualities of hers and continue to make them our own, then she will continue to live in us," said Monsignor James Kidder, who was once Le's pastor.

Her funeral comes nearly two weeks to the day that Le's body was found stuffed into a basement wall inside the Yale University lab where she worked. It was the day she and Widawsky were supposed to be married.

"Although our beloved Annie is no longer with us she continues to shine and live deep in our hearts as we remember her graceful smiles and the fullness of life that she lived," said Bob Nguyen, Le's uncle who raised her.

ABC's Sacramento affiliate KXTV reported that Le's mother Vivian read a poem written after her daughter's murder.

"You left life at too young an age, at the beginning of many great things," Le's brother Chris read, translating the poem from Vietnamese to English. "All the dreams and hopes of your future gone with you to your resting place."

Kidder told mourners that Le "wanted to do the best and be the best."

"Those who knew her describe the Yale graduate student as having an outsized personality with an infectious laugh," he said. "Someone always ready to help others, a trait reflected in her choice of a career in medical research."