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Breakup violence is something that can happen anywhere. You might hear one relationship violence case on the news,
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but it's happening in your school whether you know it or not. Breakup violence, we weren't really even sure if
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that was a real thing, but I mean now going through this, we definitely know it is a real thing. And like everyone
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was just in shock. It ruins not just one person's life or one family. It's such a domino effect. I
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mean, the ripples are like outrageous. I mean, it changed my entire life. [Applause]
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Nate was a football star. popular, attractive, seemed like he had a perfect relationship with a beautiful
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girl. Lauren was a very sparkly, bubbly, sassy girl. I'm sure a lot of students were
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jealous of their relationship, but they just would fight a lot. I came home from work and she was
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sobbing. That's when she broke up with him. Our group of friends was really really
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close. I think we all love each other like sisters. We had a plan to like go out and like
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hang out with a bunch of friends. And Lauren never responded. And we got a call from another one of
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our friends saying, "Have you seen Lauren? Like I just saw her car parked at the beach." Her car was there and it
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was open and her computer was in there and her purse was in there and the windows were down.
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She would not leave the car like that willingly. Malcolm ran out on the beach trying to
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scream her name, trying to call for her. And I went into the water thinking that
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if by some chance she were there, I'd have to find her really quickly. I was texting everybody, calling all of our
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friends, frantically asking if they had seen Lauren. The whole town was looking for Lauren.
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Her friends began showing up and uh ended up camping out there through the night.
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It was a beautiful night and we were facing this horror. And I was thinking some abductor had somehow persuaded
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Lauren to get out of her car. And the policemen were talking to me and they were like saying like, "Well, what about
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her ex-boyfriend like this?" And I was like, "No, like no, no, definitely not." The police had already been to Nate's
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house and Nate was there. You know, he's got an alibi. His parents are there. We stayed there like all night until the
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morning. I called Lauren when I got home and texted her and said, Lauren, please
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respond. Please tell me if you're okay. I just need to know you're okay. I remember kind of like shaking with
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like a really sick feeling because I was just so confused and sad and scared. [Music]