EDMONTON _ The mother of a slain 13-year-old girl told court Tuesday about the final conversation she shared with her before her bloodied body was found on a golf course.

Peacha Atkinson testified that her daughter, Nina Courtepatte, had called to say she was staying over at a close friend's house. Nina was later lured from West Edmonton Mall and raped twice before being bludgeoned to death.

Atkinson was testifying at the trial of a 19-year-old woman, who is charged with first-degree murder, sexual assault and kidnapping. She can't be named because she was 16 at the time of Nina's death in April 2005.

Atkinson remembered how her vivacious daughter liked to meet her friends at the mall's food court and would sometimes take her mother with her.

``She wanted to be an actress or a model,'' she told the judge hearing the case.

The mother testified that she had met many of Nina's friends, but had never heard the names of any of the people who were later charged in her death.

Atkinson, who has sat through almost all of the court proceedings related to her daughter's case, answered questions calmly, her only tension revealed by the tight grip of her hands on the front of the witness box.

But as she was asked to identify a picture of her girl, beaming at the camera and her eyes sparkling, tears began to slide down Atkinson's cheeks.

``Twelve,'' she replied, grabbing a tissue, when she was asked how old Nina was in the photograph.

Two police officers also testified Tuesday, telling court about the investigation that turned up weapons believed to have been used in the crime, including a claw hammer, a wrench and an ice pick.

Besides the woman now on trial, four other people were charged in Nina's death. Joseph Laboucan of Fort St. John, B.C., was convicted of first-degree murder, while Michael Briscoe of Edmonton was found not guilty. Laboucan is appealing his conviction, while the Crown is challenging Briscoe's acquittal.

A youth pleaded guilty to murder and a teenage girl was found guilty of manslaughter. She is to be sentenced as an adult on Friday.

© 2008 The Canadian Press