Another Promising Athlete Kills Girlfriend!

Nathaniel Fujita         Lauren Astley

The song goes, “You always hurt the one you love; the one you shouldn’t hurt at all,” but two lives previously full of possibilities have now been tragically and permanently altered. After a most reprehensible crime occurred, one was left dead and the other will now spend time in jail at the very least. Two families are left mourning and wondering what went wrong, as Lauren Astley, an 18 year old recent graduate of Wayland High School was allegedly murdered by her friend, high school star athlete football player, Nathaniel Fujita.

George Huguely    Yeardley Love

This is another example of the disturbing increase in "young love" violence resulting in the female's death. It was just last year that something similar occurred between 22 year old Univ. of Virginia women’s lacrosse player, Yeardley Love and her star lacrosse player boyfriend, 22 year old George Huguely. This is scary because it’s about one person fatally exerting power and control over another because they can. These kids are young and really don’t know anything about what they are doing, but since they learn violence from all the negative music, music videos, video games and movie images they watch, they become desensitized and have no problem carrying out these despicable actions.

Malcolm Astley, Lauren’s father, said Fujita and his daughter were “close.” Going by how loosely people use words these days, the two might have been in a relationship and reading between the lines, only God knows if they were really just platonic friends, friends with benefits or in an actual girlfriend and boyfriend relationship. Regardless of the type of relationship they shared, these were two teenagers who were new at love and immature. They had no business doing anything that would leave one of them dead.

Although Fujita has pleaded not guilty, some are saying she wanted to leave him that’s why he killed her. We weren’t there, so we actually don’t know what transpired, but something went wrong somewhere. Could it be that the good looking star athletewho was so physically powerful, was too used to getting preferential treatment and being catered to, so he couldn’t take no for an answer? Was he depressed, suicidal, impulsive, and emotional and behaviorally out of control? We will now never know.

They say there’s no motive, so some are saying in a fit of rage or passion, he completely lost control and did what he is accused of doing. Some say he didn’t snap. He premeditated the occurrence by luring Lauren to his home to get his way and win her over because she wanted to break up with him. His thoughts may have been to intimidate her, seduce her, talk to her, beg her, or whatever else. We will never know now.

The stakes of the consequences of these types of crimes are high because it shows a disconnect some young men have with reality. However, this is a teachable moment to serve as a lesson to young girls. If you break up or want to break up with someone, do it as nicely and kindly, but firmly as possible, but never ever be with the person alone again. Don’t say you want to give him one last opportunity to tell his side of the story or you want to at least talk to the poor guy. If you do, that may be your last day on earth because you are depending on the guy’s goodness and goodwill for your safety, which may now be non-existence.

Nothing will bring their daughter back but, my sincere condolence goes to the Astley family for their loss. May God grant them the fortitude to bear it.