Social Network Provides Outlet for Thoughts, Memories of Lauren Astley

As friends and family and even total strangers struggle to process the events in Wayland during the past few days, Facebook has become an arena in which people can connect and cope.

At least three Facebook pages are now dedicated to messages and memories of Lauren Astley, the 18-year-old woman found murdered Monday in Wayland.

The first, “Have You Seen Lauren Astley,” was created at 1:57 a.m. Monday, just hours after Astley was reported missing and still more than five hours before her body was discovered.

It wasn’t until 6 p.m., Monday that the posts on that page changed from a hopeful effort to find a missing young woman to a de facto memorial page as news reports began to circulate that a body found in a marshy area of Wayland had been positively identified as Astley.

Since then two other pages have appeared. One, started Monday night by a student at Elon University where Astley was set to attend in the fall, is called In Memory of Lauren Astley. With about 400 posts as of Friday morning, the page is filled with the condolences of many who had hoped to meet Astley in the fall as university classmates.

“It's such a shame that those of us at Elon will never get the opportunity to meet you, Lauren. You seemed like such a beautiful person,” Kristen Van Fleet wrote. “My thoughts and prayers are with your family and friends during this extremely difficult time. Rest in peace.”

But the most recent Facebook group, R.I.P. Lauren Astley, has become the go-to memorial site, where more than 7,900 members as of Friday morning have left innumerable posts. In this case, a remarkable number of the posts are from people who not only didn’t know Astley – like those future classmates at Elon – but were also unlikely to ever meet her.

“I never met you, or even knew of you before this happened. I guess I wasn't one of the blessed ones to have known you. From when [sic] I've heard and seen on thsi [sic] page, you were a true blessing to everyone you met,” wrote Kristina Marie Lando on the R.I.P Lauren Astley page.

Many posts, because they come from strangers, include locations: Toronto, Canada; Holliston, Mass.; Acton, Mass.; Chatham County, N.C.; and more.

A testament to Astley’s memorable nature are the comments from customers she helped as part of her job at Shop344, the Natick Collection store where she worked.

“Lauren [sic], I never formally met you but i [sic] distinctly remember you helping me in 344 one day. People were taking a really long time in the fitting room and you stood there with me talking and laughing and being so extremely nice,” wrote Olivia Vitali. “its [sic] really crazy that i [sic] only saw you one time in my life but was able to recongnize [sic] you from these pictures and the news. that [sic] is the impact you obviously had on people.”

There are flashes of anger directed at Nathaniel Fujita, the man being charged with her murder, but those angry comments are rare and, in at least one case, are met with a compassion and grace that seems to take its cue from Astley's father, Malcolm, who has spoken of the Fujita family only to say that he knows they are suffering as well.

Reminding people to respect the page being about Astley, the page adminstrator asked that wall comments about Fujita not be left, but the request was not made in anger.

"The fujitas [sic] are going through enough and the same with Laurens [sic] family. So please respect this page or dont [sic] write on it [sic] Thankyou [sic]- Sunida McKay."

Through all the comments, those from best friends, acquaintances, strangers and random encounters alike, the common thread of sadness runs. Sadness and, at the same time, a chance to remember the moments shared or anticipate the future meetings or just a hope that something so tragic never happens to anyone else.