Nikki Kuhnhausen’s mother remembers the day her daughter officially came out as transgender. It was the first day of sixth grade.

“She wasn’t Nick anymore. She was Nikki,” Lisa Woods told media Friday night before a vigil for the slain teenager. “She had been Nikki behind closed doors since she was 2 years old. She had Hannah Montana and high heels and makeup. We would buy her girls clothes for her bedroom.”

Kuhnhausen was proud of who she was, Woods said, but the family worried that others may not be as accepting.

Their worst fears were realized when Kuhnhausen went missing in early June, and her remains were found Dec. 7 on Larch Mountain.

Vancouver police detectives say David Y. Bogdanov, 25, strangled the 17-year-old after learning she was transgender. The two reportedly met in downtown Vancouver that night and drank together. They later communicated via Snapchat and met up again early the next morning, court records say. That was the last time she was seen alive. Bogdanov is facing second-degree murder in Clark County Superior Court.