NECN 6/18/14: Broadside: Preventing breakup violence. On July 11, 2011, the community of Wayland, Massachusetts, embraced a grieving family and paid respects to a beloved teenager. It was the memorial service for Lauren Dunne Astley, a warm, talented 18 year old who had just graduated from Wayland High School when she died at the hands of her former boyfriend.
After the service, a local minister shared the hopes of many for Lauren’s parents. “I hope they know that there’s always new life, in ways we don’t understand, and I hope they know that the community here really does care,” said Rev. Stephen O. Voysey of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Weston. The former boyfriend who murdered Lauren is now serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. As for her parents, they continue a mission of teaching and healing in Lauren’s memory.
