Statement by Tessa Majors’ parents read in court by Manhattan ADA Matthew Bogdanos:
On December 11, 2019, the hopes and dreams for our daughter Tess came to a tragic end. Nearly two years later, we still find words inadequate to describe the immeasurable pain, trauma, and suffering that our family has endured since her senseless murder.
Tess was a brilliant student, a voracious reader, a poet and a fledgling journalist. She had big dreams. She loved everything about music, writing it, performing it, listening to it. She volunteered at the local animal shelter. She spent summers attending Nature Camp, where she loved learning about the environment and the natural world around her. She loved meeting new people with different ideas and beliefs than her own.
But mostly she loved her family and friends, her cats, and especially her younger brother. They were best friends, and his sense of loss is profound and indescribable. Tess was a friend to the friendless and kind in all the little ways that people remember forever. And she was brave. Her family misses her every moment of every day.
Our hearts ache as we watch Tess’s friends return to school, perform concerts, start new jobs, and experience all the things that our daughter never will. It is hard for many old friends to be around us. Our grief is too profound. We are too changed from the people we used to be.
With every legal proceeding, we are forced to re-live the events of December 11, 2019. We have not been able to grieve our daughter properly or in peace. Nearly two years after her murder, we still have very little closure.
The family of Tess Majors believes that murder shouldn’t be normalized or rationalized. And to those other parents who have prematurely lost a child, particularly at the hands of another human being, you have our empathy.
Our lives are forever changed, and not a day goes by that we don’t think about what could have been for Tess’s future. Not a day goes by that we don’t consider what could have been done to prevent her brutal — and again — senseless death.
