With a heavy heart, Laura Garza's family can still manage to crack a smile when remembering the girl who had everything to live for.
They lost her after she left a Manhattan nightclub with a 25-year-old sex offender who she'd just met.
Victor Manuel Garza tells Action 4 News with a bit of a chuckle.
“She like to dance," Garza said. "That’s what she wanted to do.”
The 25-year-old apparently wanted to share her dancing talents with others and one day open up her own dance school.
"She was a sweet little girl, but you know things happen," her uncle said. "You never know who's going to get taken away."
Action 4 News found Laura’s uncle at her family's home in McAllen.
Her mother and brothers were not available but Laura's uncle said they are well aware of the indictment against Michael Mele.
The 25-year-old sex offender is accused of murder, manslaughter and tampering with evidence surrounding Laura’s disappearance and death.
After Laura's disappearance in December 2008, came the devastating news that her remains had been found this year.
Two years after she went missing, the man who had been the prime suspect in the case all along is finally set to begin a process which the Garza family hopes will lead to a conviction.
Laura's uncle says from this tragedy comes some glimmer of hope and explains to Action 4 News how Laura's untimely death may have saved many other lives.
"I feel a lot better because it might not happen again with the same person," Garza said. "So I think in the community out there, there will be one less guy doing stuff like that."
Even with a person now charged in the case, Laura's family says the grieving process over a life taken senselessly from their world, has only just begun.
"It doesn't stop, it doesn't stop," Garza said with a sigh.
Laura Garza’s remains were found in April of this year in a field in Pennsylvania, just 75 miles away from Mele’s apartment.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT