A Maine teen was discovered murdered in her residence final Monday.
In keeping with her obituary, Brooke McLaughlin was similar to some other younger woman:
“She loved campfires, music, purchasing, swimming, animals, four-wheeling, ice fishing, climbing, and hanging out together with her buddies.”
All issues youngsters her age needs to be occupying their time with. Sadly, in contrast to most children her age she’ll by no means get the chance to develop into an grownup.
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The 14-year-old was discovered deceased inside her household’s residence at roughly 6 p.m. final Monday in Mount Vernon. Whereas the demise is being dominated a murder, specifics relating to precisely how she was killed and the identify of the suspected killer are being stored beneath wraps on the request of the Lawyer Normal. Nonetheless, a press release launched by Maine State Police described her alleged killer as “a male juvenile from Maine” — of solely 15 years outdated. The teenager was apprehended by regulation enforcement on Saturday and is presently being held at Lengthy Creek Youth Growth Heart in South Portland till his upcoming courtroom appearances.
A detailed household pal to the McLaughlins, Donna Walker, informed the US Solar that the killer was somebody Brooke “trusted and felt secure with.” She defined:
“I solely met him a handful of occasions however I see his [family] regularly. Neither he nor any of his household have proven any sort of aggression or something like that … [he was] well mannered, well-mannered, revered. We’re all sort of in shock and second-guessing the whole lot now. I might have by no means dreamt that the child might presumably do one thing like this … his [family] has reached out to us they usually’re in simply as a lot disbelief as everybody else.”
So it seems like this child and his household had been fairly shut with the McLaughlins — which makes Brooke’s homicide all of the extra stunning.
Disturbingly Donna says the phrase going round is that the teenager might have been appearing out over a forgotten birthday! She continued:
“From what I perceive … the kiddo that [allegedly] did this, it was their birthday, and his household wasn’t there to correctly rejoice with him, so he did one thing to make sure that the day was by no means forgotten once more.”
That’s completely incomprehensible — throughout a birthday? Donna added that the idea “hasn’t been confirmed but it surely’s a type of issues being thrown round.” Wild.
The younger boy answerable for Brooke’s demise additionally reportedly stole the McLaughlin household’s pink 2010 Chevrolet Impala, which was recovered the following day 15-20 miles away in Wayne.
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As for Brooke’s mom Becky McLaughlin, the household pal lamented that the poor girl is “frozen in time,” and ready to get up from the “nightmare.”
The McLaughlin household held a funeral service for his or her little woman over the weekend the place a reported 500 individuals got here to pay their respects. She was then cremated in a personal ceremony on Sunday. “She’ll all the time be my, my little Spitfire,” stated Donna.
“She was stuffed with expressions and was by no means afraid to make use of her voice, and that’s what I’m going to do any longer, to maintain advocating for her life she’d have executed for anybody else.”
Our ideas are with the McLaughlin household. R.I.P. Brooke.
[Images via Brooke McLaughlin/Robert’s Funeral Home & WMTW-TV/YouTube]
