Family of Hopkinton Teen Demands Justice For Mikayla, Asks DA To Hand Case To FBI
Family members and friends of Mikayla Miller, 16, gather on the Hopkinton Town Common for a vigil remembering her life, May 6, 2021.
Tori Bedford / GBH News
Family Demands Justice For Mikayla | May 6, 2021
Mikayla Miller loved to write. She had dreams of becoming a journalist and planned to spend the summer touring colleges with her mom. The 16-year-old Hopkinton teenager loved basketball, dancing to trap music, going camping in Maine and the ocean. Before they went off to bed every night, she brought her mom a cup of chamomile tea: hot, no sugar.
Mother of Mikayla Miller demands transparent investigation, forensics of item found on daughter’s body during Hopkinton vigil
Updated 10:29 PM;
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Only the hum of a helicopter and the cry of a baby could be heard on the Hopkinton Town Common as hundreds of people stood in silence Thursday in memory of 16-year-old Mikayla Miller.
The vigil and rally drew a sizable crowd in response to the death of Miller, a teenager whose life was cut short far too early.
“Nothing I say today is going to take away the pain that we all are experiencing in this new world without Mikayla, but my hope is that by sharing a little about her life, our life, it will help you get to know more about her,” Miller’s mother, Calvina Strothers, said at the rally.
In a vigil to honor her short life, Mikayla Miller’s mother told the many gathered in Hopkinton Thursday night about her daughter’s love of making tea, and how Mikayla had promised that someday, she would let her mom live in her pool house.
Through tears, Calvina Strothers described how her daughter was “funny, loving, caring, and loved me to death.”
Miller, 16, was found dead in a wooded area near the apartment complex where she lived on the morning of April 18. The cause and many of the circumstances surrounding her death have not been released. Hours earlier, Miller had been in a physical altercation with a group of teenagers. Authorities say the teenagers involved in the altercation did not go to the area where Miller’s body was found.
GoFundMe for Mikayla Miller investigation originally sought $40,000; $50,000-plus has already been raised
HOPKINTON The mother of a Hopkinton teenager found dead last month started a GoFundMe last week to raise money for an independent investigation into her daughter’s death - and the fundraiser has already surpassed its goal.
Calvina Strothers, mother of 16-year-old Mikayla Miller, also hopes to use the money to start a scholarship in her daughter’s name.
The page, created on Thursday, had raised more than $51,000 as of late Sunday afternoon. The original goal was $40,000. More than 1,300 people have donated.
The largest donation is $1,000 and there have been six others of $500.
Mikayla Miller death investigation: Hopkinton teen’s mother launches GoFundMe to continue fight for transparency, set up scholarship in daughter’s memory
Updated May 07, 1:24 PM;
Posted May 07, 1:24 PM
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A “beautiful soul” is a common description of how 16-year-old Mikayla Miller was in life.
The Hopkinton teenager is remembered as an athlete who loved basketball, an honors student who had dreams of studying journalism at a historically Black college or university and a generally untroubled child who was a loving family member and a loyal friend.
“She was a joy to her family, friends and teammates. She was never arrested or even suspended from school. Mikayla was a loving daughter, niece, and friend to so many,” Miller’s mother, Calvina Strothers, wrote on a GoFundMe page she set up Thursday, weeks after her daughter’s death.