Civil rights attorney Ben Crump will add his voice to those supporting the family of Hopkinton teen Mikalya Miller whose death has generated distrust toward law enforcement and raised concerns about the racial climate in the suburban town best known as the start of the Boston Marathon.
Mikayla Miller s Mother Rejects Ruling That Hopkinton Teen Died by Suicide nbcboston.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nbcboston.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Mikayla Miller Death Ruled A Suicide
Mikayla Miller s mother, Calvina Strothers, stands holding a candle during a moment of silence at a vigil honoring her daughter s life in Hopkinton, May 6, 2021
Tori Bedford / GBH News
Updated 6:44 p.m. ET
The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Tuesday that a Black teenager from Hopkinton who was found dead last month died by suicide, according to the office of Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan.
The body of 16-year-old Mikayla Miller was discovered in a wooded area of Hopkinton on the morning of April 18, hanging from a tree along a trail near her home. In the weeks that followed, her family raised the possibility that she had been murdered and accused Ryan of slow-walking the investigation, something Ryan denied.
“I was friends with her,” she said. “She was amazing. She was so bright. So beautiful.”
McMullen was speaking of Mikayla Miller, a 16-year-old Hopkinton girl who was found dead off West Main Street on the morning of April 18. Family members and advocates feel authorities are not doing enough enough to investigate how Miller died.
Hundreds of people flooded the Hopkinton Town Common late Wednesday afternoon, standing largely silent as they listened to a group of speakers inside the common’s gazebo. Many held signs reading “Black Lives Matter” and “Justice for Mikayla.
The rally brought supporters locally, regionally and even from out of state. Among the 29 people who spoke to the Daily News, 20 said they lived in Hopkinton or were recent graduates of Hopkinton High. But the group also included one person each from Worcester, Boston, Rhode Island and Connecticut.