"I never imagined she would be gone this quickly," Orradee Bussarakham told AFP by phone. "We didn't get to say goodbye."
Orradee and the girl's father, Thongchai Donhomla, were in Bangkok on Monday to collect the body, which was found near a railway track in the seaside resort city of Pattaya early on Saturday.
"Like her dad, I'm devastated. Although I'm her stepmother, I feel like I just lost a child of my own," Orradee said.
A 45-year-old Australian, Simon Peter Carman, has been charged with premeditated murder in the case, Police Lieutenant Colonel Kosala Ngampong told AFP.
Carman was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on Friday night as he prepared to board a flight back to Australia, after the victim's friend had reported her missing.
