A vigil for the 16-year-old girl whose body was found hanging on a tree in Hopkinton Massachusetts will be held on Thursday afternoon (May 6).
According to NBC, family, friends and members of Mikayla Miller neighborhood will gather at 4:30 p.m. in the Hopkinton town common in commemoration of her life. The event will be led by Monica Cannon-Grant of social impact center Violence in Boston and former Boston City Council Tito Jackson. Miller’s family is also expected to take the stage to share a few words as well as any updates on the findings.
Per School Superintendent Carol Cavanaugh, schools were dismissed early and after school activities were cancelled due to “increased police presence” in the buildings and in preparation for the large crowd of people that may form at the vigil.
Details of Miller’s death are still being discovered as her relatives await autopsy results and call for an independent probe into her passing. As of now, however, authorities say the teen was involved in an altercation with a group of other teenagers on April 18 while in an unsupervised clubhouse at the apartment complex where she lived. Her mother later reported the news to police, who interviewed the late teen and another girl who was embroiled in the fight.
On Saturday night, Miller left her home and traveled about 1,316 steps between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., according to GPS data from her phone. The following morning, in the exact location, a resident taking a jog in the woods noticed her hanging from a tree. Phone data showed that between 8 p.m to the next morning, the teenagers Miller fought were not near the place where her body was found.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said it was too early on in the investigation to determine whether the incident was based on race. There is also no information on who else may have been in the woods.