“the human body was at water about 30 foot from the roadway,” stated Massachusetts State Police Investigator Tony DeLucia. “we pulled straight right back the gown from her neck . We saw a serious injury to her throat.”
Lauren Astley, 18, ended up being discovered with a bungee cable tangled inside her locks.
“Nate is unquestionably maybe perhaps perhaps not tangled up in this,” buddy Chloe Jacques remembered thinking. “Nate could not make a move such as this to Lauren. Like, this is certainly absurd.”
In the future July 3, the night time Lauren went lacking, cops chatted to Nathaniel and their mom, Beth, 3 times and every time they told fundamentally the story that is same Nathaniel ended up being house alone whenever Lauren stopped by for 5 minutes, but she never got away from her vehicle. The storyline seemed legitimate.
“We desired to understand the comings and goings of Lauren and Nathaniel when you look at the times and months just before this occasion happening,” stated DeLucia.
Detectives would discover in the days ahead of Lauren’s murder, ex-boyfriend Nathaniel’s behavior had changed.
“Well, he’d gone from– a young child whom was– constantly on the road, constantly working down . to a young child who was simply essentially in the home, lying regarding the settee, searching miserable,” stated Nathaniel’s uncle, George Mattingly.
Nathaniel had stopped spending time with buddies. He had been consuming great deal and smoking cigarettes cooking cooking cooking pot daily.
Despite the fact that she had separated with Nathaniel a months that are few, buddy Genevieve claims Lauren nevertheless focused on him.
“She will say like, ‘ Do you realy think I should take action? You think I should speak to him? Perhaps i will attempt to assist him?'” she told Smith.
Nathaniel’s mom, Beth, had been therefore concerned she took him to see a psychiatrist about her son. She additionally asked Lauren to communicate with him.
“Nate’s mother arrived and visited Lauren in the office . and asked if it will be a great concept if she reached away to him and talked to him and sorts of saw what was going on,” stated Chloe.
And Lauren did reach out to Nathaniel. On July 3, 2011, she began the past day’s her life likely to her task in the neighborhood shopping mall. Surveillance video shows Lauren going within the shopping center escalator at 9:45 a.m.
“. there is a video clip surveillance of Lauren making the shopping mall in the phone the she is killed night. She actually is in the phone with Nathaniel Fujita,” said DeLucia. The time ended up being 6:45 p.m. “After she left work, from everybody we’d spoken to, she had never ever been seen again.”
“We had had plans to spend time most of the big set of us that night. ” a teary-eyed genevieve stated.
“Did she let you know that she was geting to go?” Smith asked.
“No. No body knew that she had been going that night,” Genevieve replied.
Lauren and her buddies often knew where individuals were at all times, but her plans to consult with Nathaniel that night she kept to by herself.
“and it is only one word, simply the term ‘Here.’ Which is her saying to Nathaniel she is in the house,” DeLucia explained.
That text at 7:05 p.m. on July 3 ended up being the final message Lauren delivered.
“. we desired to talk to Nathaniel to discover exactly what her was that evening to his communication. ” stated DeLucia.
Tony DeLucia and Wayland Police detective Jamie Berger drove to Nathaniel’s house the morning that is next.
“As soon as we knocked in the home, Tomo Fujita had been here, who was simply Nathaniel’s daddy,” said Det. Berger.
But his son was not house. Nathaniel ended up being nowhere can be found. Detectives then got a search warrant for the Fujita house.
“We were only available in the storage ’cause here appeared as if some sort of stain on the ground associated with storage,” DeLucia stated. “. the stain . tested good for bloodstream . “