It is our child’s birthday today. This day was meant to be spent with the love of their life, celebrating as we do in our young 20s. Kasper had a plan to propose soon, so they could make it official and start their own Happily Ever After - together.

Juju was her name. There can’t be a proposal or any of the rest of the plans they had together anymore. She’s gone. Wednesday night, Juju was murdered because a few friends walked by the wrong person and were attacked. Juju got chased down by a habitual violent criminal with a knife, and killed for being on a walking trail in Portland, Maine at around 9:30 in the evening. Her friend Liz was a hero and did her best to pry the attacker away. She was able to get him to run away, but not before enough damage was done. She did what she could, called 911, and sat with Juju until the ambulance came.

Juju was a bright light. Juju was a gentle and lively soul. It’s cliche to say someone lit up a room, but if you knew her - that’s exactly how it was. This was a kind, compassionate, vibrant, spirited person with a whole life ahead of her. Her mother is planning her funeral. She is devastated. We all are. Very little in life is “fair”. That’s easy enough to accept. But even less in life should be so cruel. This young couple had plans for tonight, for next month, for next year, and it’s all just…over. If you’ve ever gone through this, you know there’s no way to prepare for it or to accept it. The finality doesn’t come easily. But that is what we are all left with from this one senseless act.

Those of us who are left are tasked with carrying on. We are so proud of Kasper's strength, because that will happen. He and Juju’s mom, Wendy, are planning the funeral together. Kasper is going to try to go to the places they planned to go together. For now, reality is a little harder and, unfortunately, expensive. These are young people in a shared apartment with several part time jobs who were doing fine holding it all together. An event like this makes it a house of cards. Suddenly Juju’s mom has to pay for a funeral and Kasper has to move out of an apartment and a city that has become filled with painful reminders. He is leaving two jobs with two sets of co-workers he likes being around. There’s just no way to try to carry on when everything around you brings pain instead of peace.

We write all this to ask if you can find it in your heart to help us help them all. Juju’s mom doesn’t deserve a bill for this. We want Kasper to be able to move to a new city in the comfort of friends who have invited him to do so. This means breaking a lease that started in June, packing and moving everything to a new home, finding new work, and starting again. We are helping as much as we can, as any parent would - it’s just all very immediate and costly.

We set the goal amount to cover the funeral and some of Kasper’s resettling so there is time to grieve. Any amount beyond that will be used to defray other costs like early lease termination, assistance for Liz who also is deep in the thick of this awful situation, and the unexpected expenses that arise when a loved one is struck down unexpectedly.

Thank you for reading this and even considering helping. We know that the idea of “extra” money is rare. We have one hope, and that is to ease the burden of all of the financial pressure for this small group of deeply affected loved ones so that they can focus on grieving, healing, recovering, and thriving again. They all know that is truly what Juju would have wanted. Juju would scoff at a sad funeral, even in these circumstances. So don’t read this and be sad. Read this and help us remove the sadness for those closest to it.

Joe-la and Matt DeWitt