WBUR 7/6/11: Wayland Community Shocked After Teen’s Murder (with audio). About 20 miles west of Boston, another young person has lost their life to violence. Lauren Astley,18, was found dead in her hometown of Wayland on Monday. Prosecutors say it is a case of teen dating violence. Like a lot of people her age, Lauren Astley had a spark for life. She volunteered in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, was about to go away to college in the fall and had a job at the Natick Mall. And she had a longtime boyfriend with whom she had recently broken up with.
State Prosecutor Lisa McGovern said Astley phoned Nathaniel Fujita, her former boyfriend, when she was at work on Sunday. "Those phone calls occurred close to the time that she left work, approximately 6:30 in the afternoon. After that point, that evening, Lauren Astley did not return home," McGovern said. "If it was an outside person that came in and did this, it would be different. When you see a relationship situation like this go bad, it’s not like a perpetrator that came in from somewhere else." Later that night the police found Astley’s Jeep parked at the town beach, the windows down, her purse and computer on the front seat. The next morning her body was discovered submerged in a marsh, with a severe wound on the neck.
