Robert Parker, father of Sophia Parker — the two-year-old girl who was found dead in Trinity County Saturday — just released a statement to the press.

Sophia’s mother, Claudia Pedreros, was due to be arraigned for the child’s murder in Weaverville today.

This is a time of extreme sorrow and profound hardship for my entire family.  

It is impossible to express in words the loss we feel right now. Sophia was in life, and will always be in our hearts, a remarkably beautiful and brave little girl. She brought such light into this world and I feel truly blessed that I had the opportunity to spend even such a brief time with her.  I miss her terribly and the emptiness she leaves behind serves to remind me how precious and fragile life actually is.

Given these tragic circumstances, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to the Search and Rescue Teams and Law Enforcement agents who worked so hard searching for our daughter Sophia. They deserve tremendous  respect and credit for helping us through this tragedy.