LAUREN ASTLEY - 18 yo - Wayland MA

An 18-year-old Wayland man was
arrested this morning for the weekend murder of an aspiring young
fashion designer he once dated who had just graduated from Wayland High
School last month and was preparing for college this fall.


Nathaniel Fujita will be arraigned this morning in Framingham
District Court for the death of Lauren Astley, whose body was found by a
bicyclist early yesterday morning along a marshy area of Route 27 with
an “obvious wound to her neck,’’ according to a statement released by
Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone and Wayland Police Chief Robert
Irving.


Fujita once dated Astley, but it was unclear if they still had a relationship, the DA said.Yesterday, Lauren Astley’s heartbroken dad had appealed to the
community to help find out what happened in his daughter’s final
minutes.
“What I’m most concerned about now is whether anybody can step
forward and provide information on the time slot from 7:45 p.m. to 8
o’clock” on Sunday, father Malcolm Astley told the Herald yesterday
outside his Boston Post Road home, where friends stopped in to exchange
hugs and offer condolences.
“Something happened in there. There were some vehicles, some people.
Anyone that has information that can help us protect kids,” he said.
Lauren Astley left work at about 6:40 p.m. Sunday and was last seen at about 7:45 p.m., her dad said.
Police found her abandoned Jeep Grand Cherokee at the Wayland town beach 15 minutes later, he said.
A passing bicyclist discovered Lauren Astley’s body in a marshy area
along Route 27 in Wayland at about 7:30 a.m. yesterday. She appeared to
have been murdered, according to a statement from Leone’s office.
Malcolm Astley said he didn’t know anyone who would have wanted to harm his daughter.
“Things will work out. In mysterious ways, they can and will,” said
Astley, his voice trembling, seeking solace that something good may yet
come out of his daughter’s apparent murder.
“This kind of terrible event will lead to a stronger community,” Astley said.
Astley, who said he had a sleepless night Sunday, remembered his
daughter as a young woman with a wide variety of interests who had
“grown to shape her own path.” She graduated from Wayland High School in
the spring and already had begun to choose courses at Elon University
in central North Carolina, where she was set to enroll in the fall.
She dreamed of entering the fashion design business some day, her dad said.
But she also was interested in anatomy and wanted to study in the
university’s cadaver lab and continue taking voice lessons, he said.
She belonged to an a Capella group and had been an actress, once
landing the lead role of Annie as an eighth-grader in a town play called
“A Kinder and Gentler Annie.”Her autopsy will be
conducted today. Authorities are still investigating the circumstances,
cause and manner of death, according to the DA.
Astley said he last saw his daughter Sunday when they had lunch together.
“If you have children,” Astley said, “treasure them.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1349784&format=&page=2&listingType=Loc#articleFull

MALCOLM ASTLEY, the father of 18-year-old
murder victim Lauren Astley, has suffered the unimaginable. But in the
aftermath of his profound loss, he has shown something else almost
unimaginable in these circumstances: compassion.
Victims
can set the tone for how a town deals with tragedy. For Wayland - where
both Lauren Astley and the former boyfriend charged with her murder,
Nathaniel Fujita, just graduated from high school - the killing was a
vicious shock. Astley’s apparent concern for the suspect’s family and -
yes - even the suspect himself creates an atmosphere of unification
rather than inciting fear and revenge.
“The
whole community can be thought of as losing two kids,’’ said Malcolm
Astley, a Wayland school committee member and former Lexington High
School principal. He is the one comforting his community, instead of the
other way around.
He may
well enter a period of anger; any parent’s reaction to losing a child is
mutable and ultimately private, and no one can predict his or her own
reaction in the same situation. And the killing, in what appears to have
been a bloody explosion of domestic violence, invites other questions -
such as how to identify when teenage angst is likely to turn violent,
and how communities can protect themselves and their young people.
But
in this one instance, this one death of a child in a region that’s seen
too much violence already this year, we can look to Astley and get a
glimpse of how we might heal together.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2011/07/08/a_fathers_offer_of_forgiveness/

The mother of Lauren Astley, the Wayland High school graduate
allegedly murdered by her ex-boyfriend, spoke out today about the loss
of her only child.
In a statement released through Middlesex prosecutors, Mary Dunne
said that she wanted to thank the Wayland community and the friends of
her daughter for their support since Monday when her daughter’s body was
found in marshy land off Water Row.
“I want to thank the media for respecting my privacy and thank our
friends, family, and community for their support during what has been,
and continues to be, an excruciatingly difficult time for our family,’’
she said in the statement.
The 18-year-old Astley’s ex-boyfriend, Nathaniel Fujita, allegedly
slashed Ashley’s throat, strangled her with a bungee cord and tossed her
body in the marsh. The couple dated for three years until this spring
when Astley nded the relationship.
Fujita and Astley met at Fujita’s Wayland home Sunday night when he
allegedly murdered her. Bloodstains and bloody clothing belonging to
Fujita were found in his home, prosecutors said in court.
Fujita, 18, has pleaded not guilty to first degree murder and is being held without bail.
In the statement, the grieving mother described the pain she is feeling and talks about the child she has lost.
“Lauren was my only child, a beautiful, bright, charismatic young
woman who filled my life, and many others, with joy for 18 years,’’ the
mother said in the statement.
Without mentioning Fujita by name, the mother added that “Lauren was
stolen from us all too soon and we may never understand why this
happened and how anyone, especially someone who was supposed to care for
her, could do this. ‘’
Dunne said she each day since she learned of her daughter’s murder
has been filled with pain because she no longer has her daughter in her
daily life.
“I will wake up daily to the awful pain of her absence, but will also
search the sky nightly for the glittering star she has become,’’ the
child’s mother’s said.
She added, “we will continue to grieve for the tremendous loss of
Lauren and continue to request privacy at this very difficult time.”

http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/07/mother-murdered-wayland-teen-says-daughter-now-glittering-star-the-sky/PVXYPJiCVAVddmAvwp0ocK/index.html