LUMBERTON, N.C. (WNCN) - The funeral for 13-year-old Hania Aguilar is scheduled for next Saturday, and there's one person who people are petitioning to be there, her father.
Hania Aguilar vanished on Nov. 5 when she was kidnapped just outside her Lumberton home and was found dead earlier this week.
A petition to the Guatemalan Embassy started online to try and get Hania's father to the U.S. for her funeral.
A Robeson County immigration lawyer says it will take more than a petition, and more time for that to happen.
"Even with enough support and contacting the right people to push it through it is very unlikely that it's gonna happen in time for him to be here for the actual funeral," said Immigration Attorney Stacey Maynor.
"They're gonna look at things people don't realize like your income, your bank accounts, your family members, all the things that would say you are gonna return to your home country, so, unfortunately, that's not a fast or easy process and most people are denied when they apply to enter the U.S., " Maynor added.
Meanwhile, Hania's family who are already in Lumberton mourned in a vigil at her home where she was abducted three weeks ago.
She was found dead on a secluded area in Robeson County on Tuesday.
Her family also talked to her classmates and mourned at a private memorial service at Hania's junior high school.
The students dressed in her favorite color purple and wrote messages and signs to remember the teen.
And while her friends and family mourn, the search continues to find her killer. No arrests have been made yet in Hania's case.