U.S. aid worker remembered as 'free spirit' with empathy for others

By David Schwartz PRESCOTT, Ariz. (Reuters) - Kayla Mueller, the young U.S. aid worker who died while a captive of militants of the Islamic State group in Syria, was remembered by family and friends in her hometown on Tuesday as a "free spirit" driven by her enormous empathy for human suffering. The White House said Mueller's family received a message from her captors containing information that was authenticated by U.S. intelligence analysts who verified her death. President Barack Obama also publicly acknowledged in an interview with the news website Buzzfeed that Mueller was among the hostages whom U.S. commandos were sent to rescue but failed to find in an operation he ordered last year. Outside the county courthouse in her hometown of Prescott, Arizona, two of Mueller's maternal aunts joined one of her childhood friends and a local pastor to deliver a tearful tribute to the Northern Arizona University grad.

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