48 Hours - Loved to Death

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

This classic episode of 48 Hours, which last aired on 9/13/2014, tells the story of Lauren Astley, a popular teen whose last encounter with her football player ex-boyfriend proved to be fatal. Their two families were forever changed. The history of their relationship was examined through interviews with friends, police investigators, Nathaniel’s uncle and Lauren’s parents. "48 Hours" contributor Tracy Smith investigates. Watch all-new episodes of 48 Hours on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Breakup violence is something that can happen anywhere. You might hear one relationship violence case on the news, but it's happening in your school, whether you know it or not.

Breakup violence, we weren't really even sure if that was a real thing. But, I mean, now going through this, we definitely know it is a real thing. And, like, everyone was just in shock. It ruins not just one person's life or one family, it's such a domino effect. I mean, the ripples are like outrageous. I mean, it changed my entire life. Nate was a football star. Popular, attractive. Seemed like he had a perfect relationship with a beautiful girl.

Lauren was a very sparkly, bubbly, sassy girl. I'm sure a lot of students were jealous of their relationship, but they just would fight a lot. I came home from work and she was sobbing. That's when she broke up with him. Our group of friends was really, really close. I think we all love each other like sisters. We had a plan to go out and hang out with a bunch of friends.

And Lauren never responded. And we got a call from another one of our friends saying have you seen Lauren like I just saw her car parked at the beach her car was there and it was open and her computer was in there and her purse was in there and the windows were down she would not leave the car like that willingly. Malcolm ran out on the beach trying to scream her name, trying to call for her. And I went into the water thinking that if by some chance she were there,

I'd have to find her really quickly. I was texting everybody, calling all of our friends, frantically asking if they had seen Lauren. The whole town was looking for Lauren. Her friends began showing up and ended up camping out there through the night. It was a beautiful night, and we were facing this horror. And I was thinking that some abductor had somehow persuaded Lauren to get out of her car. And the policemen were talking to me and they were like saying, well what about her ex-boyfriend?

I was like, no, like no, no definitely not. The police had already been to Nate's house and Nate was there. You know, he's got an alibi. His parents are there. We stayed there, like, all night until the morning. I called Lauren when I got home and texted her and said, Lauren, please respond. Please tell me if you're okay. I just need to know you're okay. I remember kind of, like, shaking with, like, a really sick feeling because I was just horror movie I was too scared to watch.

It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear, but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there,

and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy

about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party.

So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. It's just the best idea yet. Dawn, July 4, 2011. Lauren Astley had now been missing for over 12 hours. Her friends, Genevieve Flynn and Chloe Jakes, were paralyzed with fear. And we just waited and waited and sat in silence, just not knowing what to do, not knowing what to think, not knowing how to feel.

Then in the morning, they found her. Just after daybreak, Lauren's body was discovered in this marsh five miles from her home. She had been strangled, her throat cut. I was hoping up to the last moment that it was not her, even when we went to the medical examiner's office. Malcolm Astley had done what no father should ever have to do,

identify the body of his first and only child. Lauren had just turned 18, a bright, musically gifted girl with her whole life in front of her. It's still really hard for me to believe. Lauren's mother, Mary Dunn. I'm so grateful that I have different recordings of her, and it's something that nourishes me every day. that nourishes me every day. Lauren was 12 when she got the lead in a local theater production of Annie. She had a lovely voice.

It was just growing stronger and stronger. Lauren grew up in Wayland, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. Her parents, Malcolm and Mary, are both educators. They divorced in 2006 and shared custody of their daughter. She was always laughing, always moving. She was very strong in soccer, then tennis, even though she was small. She was tiny. She was only five feet tall.

But with a big personality. She definitely stood out in the crowd. She did have a lot of personality and she was incredibly honest. A trendsetter, definitely. She was just like such a very big presence. Girlfriends Genevieve, Chloe, and Hannah. She was a really good friend.

If she was helping you with a problem, she would put 100% into it. Go on, go on, leave me breathless. In high school, Lauren blossomed. She became a lead singer in an a cappella group. She was so excited to get that part, to get the Breathless song. Go on, go on, Come on, leave me breathless And Lauren began dating fellow classmate Nathaniel Fujita. Was Nathaniel her first boyfriend?

Yeah, first serious boyfriend. RJ, was he part of your group? Uh, yeah. RJ Bolivar, DJ Henderson, and Connor Murphy have been friends with Nathaniel almost their whole lives. I think we've been playing sports together since we were maybe elementary school. He was a good guy. He was a pretty good friend. I mean, he was like a kind person at heart. He was very nice. He was funny. He was friendly. He was my friend.

He was a little bit on the quiet side. He didn't really say or talk much. They say Nathaniel did most of his talking on the football field. A star wide receiver for Wayland High School. Nathaniel is Beth and Tomo Fujita's oldest child. Tomo is a well-known guitarist and a professor at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. You know, Lauren became pretty much a member of the family.

George Mattingly is Nathaniel's uncle. Were you planning on going back to Japan? She was at the Fujita home quite a bit. She was a big part of Nathaniel's life. Good choice for him. I thought so. She was lovely. She was great.

For the first two years, it was pretty fine. I'm happy just to have you. They were both very attractive. They seemed like the ideal couple. Come on, leave me breathless. But their three-year relationship was a roller coaster ride. I'm trying to harness. They started getting sort of chronically into fights and would be back together, broken up, back together, broken up.

And then in the spring of senior year, on her 18th birthday, Lauren broke it off with Nathaniel for good. I think with what was the final breakup, she felt some relief. Life was somehow opening up along with college. In the fall, Lauren was on her way to Elon University in North Carolina. She was really looking forward to college because she would get to meet a lot of new people. But Nathaniel saw the breakup in an entirely different light. That was not so good for him. He was sad about it, felt a sense of loss.

It should have been a time of celebration. He'd been recruited to play football at Trinity College in Connecticut. A childhood dream come true. I said, man, you're going to Trinity to play football. Aren't you excited? He just, you know, was kind of deadpan. Not to become animated about football. It was just not the same kid. It was graduation when we were all crying because we were graduating high school.

High school graduation. Lauren, Hannah, and Chloe threw a big party. About 150 classmates were under a huge tent, dancing and celebrating, including Lauren's ex-boyfriend, Nathaniel. Lauren didn't want to talk to Nate at the graduation party. I remember looking over and seeing Nate sort of going up to her saying, you know, talk to me. She was sort of just like, get away from me. Like, get away from me, Nate. She came to me crying and said, he will not leave me alone.

He's harassing me. He doesn't want me to dance with anybody. He doesn't want me to dance with anybody. And at that point, he just looked really angry and walked over and sort of punched his fist into one of the poles that was holding the tent up. I saw the tent collapse and people trying to hold it up. So people actually had to rush over and hold it? Yeah, it was a big scene. The scene ended when Nathaniel was asked to leave. He had to be picked up, and I think feeling like the world was against him at that point.

Just one month later, Lauren was found brutally murdered. And when they told me that they had found her body, I remember just bellowing, don't let it be Nate, don't let it be Nate. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn. And it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.

There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials,

I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Hotshot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, The most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld,

and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now.

The body was in the water about 30 feet off the roadway. Massachusetts State Police Investigator Tony DeLucia. I pulled back the dress from her throat. I saw a severe wound to her neck. Lauren Astley was found with a bungee cord tangled in her hair. Nate is definitely not involved in this. Nate would never do something like this to Lauren. Like, that is absurd.

On the night of July 3rd, after Lauren went missing, police officers talked to Nathaniel and his mother Beth three times, and each time they told essentially the same story. Nathaniel was home alone when Lauren stopped by for five minutes, but she never got out of her car. The story seemed credible. We wanted to know the comings and goings of Lauren and Nathaniel, the days and weeks prior to this event happening. Investigators would learn in the weeks prior to Lauren's murder,

her ex-boyfriend Nathaniel's behavior had changed. His uncle, George Mattingly. Well, he had gone from a kid who was always on the move, always working out, to a kid who was basically at home, lying on the couch, looking miserable. Nathaniel had stopped hanging out with friends. He was drinking a lot and smoking pot daily. Was Lauren worried about him? Lauren was worried about him. Even though she had broken up with Nathaniel a few months earlier.

She would say, like, do you think I should do something? Nathaniel's mother, Beth, was so worried about her son, she took him to see a psychiatrist. She also asked Lauren to talk to him. Nate's mom came and visited Lauren at work and asked if it would be a good idea if she reached out to him. And Lauren did reach out to Nathaniel. July 3, 2011, Lauren began the last day of her life going to her job at the local mall.

6.45 p.m. There's a video surveillance of Lauren leaving the mall on the phone the night she's killed. She's on the phone with Nathaniel Fujita. After she left work, from everyone we had spoken to, she had never been seen again. We had had plans to hang out, all of the big group of us, that night. Did she tell you that she was going to go?

No. No one knew that she was going that night. Lauren and her friends usually knew where everyone was at all times, but her plans to visit Nathaniel that night, she kept to herself. Nathaniel's parents weren't home. Investigators learned from phone records she had sent Nathaniel a text message. And it's one word. It's just the word here. That's her saying to Nathaniel, she's at the home.

That text at 7.05 p.m. on July 3rd was the last message Lauren sent. We wanted to speak to Nathaniel to find out what his communication with her was that evening. Tony DeLucia and Wayland Police Detective Jamie Berger drove to Nathaniel's home the next morning.

When we knocked on the door, Tomo Fujita was there, who was Nathaniel's father. But his son wasn't. Nathaniel was nowhere to be found. Investigators then got a search warrant for the Fujita home. We started in the garage because there appeared to be some type of stain on the floor of the garage.

The stain tested positive for blood. They also discovered additional blood evidence. Bungee cords. And in the basement of the Fujita home, a black gym bag. Upon opening that gym bag, there was a pair of sneakers, like soaking wet, that had mud in them. We went on to search Nathaniel's bedroom. And there, hidden in a crawl space above the ceiling. The first thing you see is a pair of sneakers that appear to have blood all over them.

In addition to bloody clothing, and they're soaking wet. Upon finding all these items, we were going to arrest Nathaniel Fujita. In the early morning hours of July 5th, Nathaniel Fujita was arrested and charged with murder. When he was arrested, what was that moment like? It was incomprehensible. Incomprehensible. It was like an alternate reality. Significant blood found near some bungee cords.

When I realized it was Nate that killed her, that the Nate that I was friends with could do that to the girl he loved, to my best friend, it blows my mind. The crime lab determined the blood found in Nathaniel's home was Lauren's. Investigators would gather more evidence to put together a timeline of the crime. They say Nathaniel was home alone when he savagely murdered Lauren in his family's garage. Nathaniel was home alone when he savagely murdered Lauren in his family's garage. Then he drove her red Jeep a quarter of a mile to the Town Beach parking lot,

dumped her keys in a storm drain, and ran back home. He gets back to the garage, puts her inside his car. Investigator DeLucia says Nathaniel then drove five miles to the secluded marsh. Takes her body out of the car, goes about 30-some-odd feet into the water, and tries to conceal her inside the vegetation in the water. He then gets in his vehicle to drive back towards his home. A witness sees him on King Street, music blaring, shirt off, man on a mission, deliberate, purposeful driving home.

When Nathaniel got home, investigators say, he hid the evidence and cleaned up. It all took less than an hour. He was upset that his girlfriend broke up with him, and ultimately he killed her. Mary Dunn never imagined her daughter's first boyfriend could ever do something so horrific. In all of our talking that we did about boys and drinking and drugs

and driving and contraception, I mean, you name it, I've never even heard that term before, breakup violence. Do you think Lauren was scared of him? No. Did you ever see any abuse? No. Any signs that the relationship was violent? No. Did you ever see any abuse? No. Any signs that the relationship was violent? No. By all accounts, there was no evidence of stalking or physical abuse

between Nathaniel and Lauren while they were dating. But their friend, R.J. Bolivar, says there were a few things about Nathaniel's behavior that troubled him. Did you ever get the sense that he was possessive of her? I mean, he definitely was, like, a bit possessive. Like, he would get angry if she talked to people. I think he would look through her phone and, like, things like that, which are kind of weird.

I believe he loved her. He was obsessed with her. As authorities learned more about how Lauren Astley's body ended up in the marsh, they started to believe she was the victim of a disturbing trend, breakup violence. It's a crime that has no zip code. It's urban, suburban, and rural. A relationship ends, and what happens is an emotional surge of uncontrollable anger. It can be verbal or physical.

And sometimes, as in the case of Lauren Astley, it can end in death. Nathaniel Fujita killed his girlfriend. Jerry Leone was the district attorney in the Lauren Astley murder case. He didn't like the fact that she broke up with him. He has a message for middle and high school students, especially young men. message for middle and high school students, especially young men. Being kind, caring, thoughtful, that's what a real man is. Only cowards would put their hands on a woman with mean intent. The White Ribbon campaign aims to stop violence before it starts.

We tell them that the White Ribbon signifies men, men standing up against violence against women. I'm going to ask you to stand up with me if you would. I want them to stand up. I want them to raise their hand, and I want them to commit to being an ambassador, not just for that moment, but they have to continue to non-willingly talk the talk, but they've got to walk the walk. I promise to never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women. The statistics are startling. According to the American Psychological Association, one in three teens and young adults is the victim of physical, verbal, emotional, or sexual abuse by a dating partner.

Of teenagers who are in abusive relationships, 3% will tell an authority figure. 6% will tell a family member. But 75% will tell a friend. That's why we focus on kids. In July 2013, more than 200 teens attended Boston's breakup summit. Like, there are multiple different types of breakups. And it happens because you aren't compatible. Lauren Astley's father, Malcolm, was there too. Yes, it is terribly painful to have someone break up with you. It's one of the worst pains in life. But normal and not to be taken as failure or as a cause for violence. Boys and men can step up together with girls and women and veto violence.

We can change the environment. We can make it a safer place for women, a safer place for relationships. All through Massachusetts, teenagers like these students from Lincoln Sudbury High School are working at violence doesn't happen only amongst teens....are working at bringing awareness to the growing problem of dating and breakup violence. Did they physically hurt their partner in any way? Through class presentations... He hit me, but I know it's not his fault. I made him mad.

I know he's really stressed right now, but I know he still loves me. ...and participation in dating violence awareness clubs, like this one at Shawsheen Regional High School. How many of you know someone who was or is in an abusive relationship? All of you. And I have to ask you, how many of you have been in one yourself? All of you. Oh my goodness. It happens more than people think. Yeah. These students say the dating abuse they experienced was emotional, not physical. And then for our post-it today, we're going to do characteristics of a healthy and unhealthy relationship.

They meet every week to listen and learn how to help classmates recognize the signs of an abusive relationship. That would be a sign that it's not okay. Unhealthy relationships contain all forms of abuse. It definitely starts off with like the obsessiveness. Constantly calling or texting your partner. Calling you every five seconds. Breathing down your neck. Psychological or emotional abuse.

When people are withdrawn, when they're constantly feeling like you're not good enough. Physical abuse. Violence. Feeling threatened by your significant other. You should never be afraid of the person you love. Social media adds enormous pressure. The digital footprint that every young person lives with makes breaking up harder, sometimes humiliating.

It's a recipe for disaster. Anything that you say or do. Automatically it's on Facebook, Twitter. Nothing is ever private. It's out there. I mean, you can't get it back. It can be a traumatizing experience. It's really scary. It's scary that a lie posted about you can be seen by the world.

When Lauren Astley was contemplating ending her relationship with Nathaniel Fujita, she and her best girlfriends chatted about it on social media. I had a Facebook thread with a list of all the reasons why Lauren should break up with Nate. So what was on the list? Friends don't like him. My mom doesn't like him. Mean to his mom. Aggressive.

Aggressive was on the list? When he's drunk. There's no evidence Nathaniel knew about the Facebook thread, and no one ever imagined he would be capable of killing Lauren. Her mother Mary wishes she had seen the red flags. The signs, although I think they were there, were very, very soft, and I construed them as teenage, you know, behavior.

And certainly there are things in retrospect that I would pay much more attention to, like the amount of time not at my house, the amount of time he had her at his house, the fact that Lauren's friends didn't like him at all. These key girlfriends, her best girlfriends didn't like him. And the numbers of times she tried to break up with him that he wouldn't allow it, I think is another red flag. According to Nathaniel's family, there was something going on with him, something so private his close friends didn't even know about it.

Something was not right. He reported to the psychiatrist that his mood was 1 out of 10. 10 being the highest, 1 being the lowest. Yes. This despite being on track to go to Trinity College and play football, which he loved. Nathaniel's college football dream had been shattered. He was about to stand trial for murder. There's two different people. There's like the Nate that was in high school with us, who was like in my homeroom, who would like joke around with me,

who was on like the track team with me. There's that Nate. Nate, do you have any comments? Then there's, like, the Nate who I have only really seen in handcuffs and in a courtroom. All rise for the jury. On February 13, 2013, a year and a half after Lauren Astley's murder, her ex-boyfriend Nathaniel Fujita's trial began.

How did he look to you? He mostly kept his face down. When he looked up, he looked just not like any Nate that I'd ever known. This defendant is guilty exactly as charged. Prosecutor Lisa McGovern wastes no time in spelling out why Lauren was murdered. Nathaniel Fujita was hurt by Lauren Astley not coming back to him, and he killed her. In most murder cases, the question is,

who? Who did it? That's not this case. Defense attorney William Sullivan, in his opening statement, admits Nathaniel killed Lauren. In this case, there's going to be two questions. Why and how? How does a young man, there's not any evidence of him ever laying a finger on this young girl.

How does he do something like this? I told the jury, you're going to hear and see some very disturbing facts. She died as a result of the combination of the strangulation and the incised wounds to her neck. Medical examiner Henry Nields testified after Lauren was strangled with a bungee cord, she then suffered a number of superficial wounds to her neck before her throat was cut.

Why these superficial, shallow wounds? He did that to hurt her. Why did he deliver the gaping, deep wound? He did that to kill her. Do you recall a party on June 4th? Yes. The prosecution questioned Genevieve Flynn and other friends about June 2011, the month between high school graduation and Lauren's murder.

I saw Lauren pick up her hands and push them down her sides as though she was saying, just stay away from me. Hannah Blahut testified about that graduation party, where Nathaniel punched a pole holding up the party tent. Nate got angry that Lauren wasn't talking to him. He was being aggressive because he was very drunk. McGovern believes Nathaniel's display of rage was an ominous prelude to killing Lauren.

This is a domestic violence murder. This was perpetrated because of the relationship, which was a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. The prosecution is painting this as a domestic violence, dating violence case. Correct. But the defense disagrees. Nathaniel didn't stalk her, didn't drive by her house, wasn't calling her,

wasn't texting her, and none of that was present. The defense wants the jury to focus on Nathaniel's behavior after graduation leading up to Lauren's murder. And during that time from those three weeks, be fair to say, you didn't see the defendant at all? I don't believe so. His friends had been saying that they didn't really want to hang out with him anymore because he had been acting differently. He's not hanging out with you guys anymore, right?

Right. Friends Connor and RJ testify Nathaniel had dropped out of their social circle. Be fair to say that the people were commenting that Nathaniel wasn't around. Some people were, yeah. We didn't know what was wrong with him, but we were worried that something was seriously wrong. And according to defense attorney Sullivan, something was seriously wrong. Nathaniel was suffering from a major mental illness. Did it seem like he was slipping through the family's fingers? That's a good way to describe it. Beth was a very concerned parent, and she always had been.

Remember, Nathaniel's mother, Beth, had persuaded her son to go see a psychiatrist. His diagnosis? Major clinical depression. Not just that you're feeling down, but this was a major depressive episode. The psychiatrist suggested antidepressant medication and therapy. But according to the defense, Nathaniel refused. He was just kind of isolating himself further and further into the summer. Lauren was worried that he was depressed,

that he was going to do something drastic to himself. And it was Lauren's concern for Nathaniel that would bring her to the Fujita home on the night of July 3, 2011. The key moment is inside that garage, what happened at the time of the killing. At the time of the killing, Sullivan says, Nathaniel lapsed into a temporary psychotic episode that prevented him from controlling his actions

or comprehending what he was doing. psychotic episode that prevented him from controlling his actions or comprehending what he was doing. The defense is that Nathaniel was not criminally responsible at the time of the incident. Because? Because of the major mental illness. The defense I would ask you to consider is one of lack of criminal responsibility. It's the insanity defense. of criminal responsibility.

It's the insanity defense. Defense expert Dr. Wade Myers, a psychiatrist, evaluated Nathaniel after Lauren's murder. What did he tell you happened when Ms. Astley arrived at the house? They began walking towards the garage to talk. He remembered that he grabbed this bungee cord and put it around her neck and began strangling her. It was as though he said he wasn't controlling himself. It was his body acting while his mind was disconnected from what was happening.

Myers says Nathaniel was still in a psychotic episode when he repeatedly cut Lauren's neck and throat. Again describing not in control of what he was doing. No emotional connection to what was happening. On March 5th, 2013, closing arguments. There's no planning involved in this case. The bungee cord is a weapon of opportunity. It's just there in the garage. You saw the other bungee cords that were there.

It was a brief onset of this psychotic episode. Say what you will about fairy godmothers, there is no psychosis fairy who magically sprinkled a temporary dose of psychosis on this defendant. Prosecutor Lisa McGovern zeroes in on Nathaniel's calculated cover-up of Lauren's murder. The evidence shows, yes, he took the car to the beach. He hid the keys in the drain. He changed out of his bloody shoes into another pair of sneakers. He drives Lauren Astley's body to the marsh.

He carries it 36 feet into the water. He drives back home. He cleans up the garage. He wasn't exhibiting a single symptom of psychosis. He was criminally responsible. Members of the jury, Nathaniel Fujita chose to act. He chose to kill Lauren Astley and his intention to kill and to murder was manifest. I know this boy. Nathaniel is not somebody who can kill. It's got to be mental illness.

It's got to be something that caused the boy that I knew to be on the wrong end of something like this. like this. You saw Ms. Freyer from Testimony Street in the courtroom. Sunday, July 3rd. Was that the last time that you saw Lauren Astley? Yes. For friends and family of Lauren Astley, the three-week murder trial was excruciating. Testifying was incredibly emotional for you.

Yeah, and it was horrible. I'm sorry. I wanted to say the right thing to make sure the right thing happened for her. Ladies and gentlemen, have a recess now in about a quarter of two. It was just as agonizing for Nathaniel's family on the other side of the courtroom. He seemed bewildered.

I don't think he understands to this day why the killing of Lauren took place. Our children make mistakes, even horrible, horrible mistakes. It doesn't remove our caring. Lauren's father, Malcolm, knows there are complex issues in this case. Trying to hold people responsible for situations that are murky and we don't understand very well, and trying to sort out the matter of mental health and how that applies in this kind of situation.

Mr. Foreman, has your jury agreed upon its verdict? We have. After just one day of deliberations, the verdict. What say you, Mr. Foreman? Is the defendant guilty or not guilty? Guilty. Guilty as to what, sir? Guilty of murder in the first degree

with deliberate premeditation and with extreme atrocity or cruelty. So say all members of the jury. Yes. We'll reset until noon. A matter of sentencing will take place at noon today. Moments after the guilty verdict,

Lauren's father did something no one expected. He made his way across the courtroom. You walked over to the Fujita family with open arms and hugged them. Why? I was mainly sharing grief and wishing them comfort in the ongoing horror that they face.

An extraordinary act of compassion and grace from a grieving father. He is perhaps... perhaps the most gen... Perhaps the most generous human being I have ever met. They are facing ongoing equivalent of torture for their son for the rest of his life. The court must impose upon Mr. Fujita the most severe sentence. 21-year-old Nathaniel is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. All rise. Awfully harsh.

Nathaniel does not deserve to be thrown away. Despite the outcome at trial, the Fujita family believes mental illness drove Nathaniel to murder Lauren. Before his depression, he was a young man with limitless possibilities. Now he is a warehoused person with a number. The mental illness is real, and nobody asks for it. Or when is he even going to apologize? Do you have questions for him? I want to know when he started thinking about doing it.

I want to know what she was doing when he heard her. Was she screaming? Was she calling out my name? She went over to see that he was doing okay, and he killed her for going over to see if he was okay. She walked right into this. Lauren's mother, Mary, believes her daughter's story should serve as a wake-up call.

After you've broken up with somebody, you don't go and see that person alone, ever. I do think about Lauren all the time she loved her life like I loved having her in my life and it's not fair he took her away from everyone she was like 18 years old it's just like years old. It's just like... This is Lauren's room. Her prom dress is in there and a couple other things that she liked and I love to touch those. As close as I can get to touching her. It's terribly, terribly tough.

That sense of a future, it just cut off. You know, when I tell people that Lauren died, I wish I could just say, my sister died, because that's how strong it is, and that's how I feel. She was so happy about things, and she was just so much fun to be around. Life was much more fun when she was in it. I do miss her every day. The Lauren Dunn Astley Memorial Fund has been created to help educate teens about healthy relationships. podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.