I visited Mikayla Miller’s memorial today, and it took me a while to find it. Bus 5 dropped me off at the main entrance to the Berry Hill Conservation Area where the Welcome to Hopkinton sign is.
“Welcome to Hopkinton” the green sign says. This is the park where a black teenager was found dead after an altercation with white kids.
It was difficult for me to get there, because I’m disabled; but cars often stop when they see me with my cane so I didn’t have to wait long to cross the street. I crossed a big puddle and then reached a vernal pond in the middle of the path, a temporary pond that forms after the snow melts during spring. In front of the pond was a dinosaur memorial decorated with faux flowers that said “RIP Mikayla Miller”, but I doubted this was where her body was found because the area didn’t look like the news pictures.
The main trail was blocked by a pond.
I noted that it would be incredibly difficult for Mikayla to walk on this path at night with zero visibility even with a flashlight. The path was covered with giant tree roots, boulders, potholes, and shallow water. I went back, crossed West Main Street and began walking along the path surrounding Icehouse Pond where I met a teenage boy fishing. I asked him where Mikayla Miller’s memorial was, and he said it was across the street and pointed north.
His face and attitude was serious. I noticed that everyone I met at this place was serious, and many people seemed depressed. I saw Mikayla’s memorial on West Main Street and I posted a photo of the nice flowers and BLM signs at the beginning of this diary. I walked along the narrow path until I reached the location where Mikayla’s body was found that I had seen in the news pictures, and then I saw strangeness.
A blond Anglo-looking woman approached the death scene from the other side of the trail. I mentally prepared for another moment of silence and sadness as I had gotten used to was the standard procedure when people meet at the memorial scene. I waited a few minutes standing still and moved to the edge of the trail to let her pass. When the woman was a few feet away I looked at her directly to acknowledge her presence and mutually mourn together, but I was shocked to see a look of joy on her face seemingly triumphant as she said “Hi!” to me with a giddy voice.
It was jarring to see someone who did not mourn Mikayla, especially at the exact location where her body was found marked by another group of flower donations. Even if I didn’t know Mikayla’s body was found there, I could sense something at this location that I did not sense anywhere else in the forest. I don’t consider myself a psychic but it was definitely a powerful presence. It took me a few minutes to recover from the strange attitude of the blonde woman, and then I went to the stone structure I had seen in the news photos.
I wondered if this was a recreation area for teens
Every time I looked at the news images of the site where Mikayla was found, I couldn't take my eyes off the stone structure in the background. I thought that might have something to do with how she died. I noticed it was a cement foundation of an old building with walls about 4 ½ to 6 ½ ft. high. There was one doorway, so it was like a little room that people could go to for privacy.
The location of the structure is on a plateau about 4 ft. below the trail. It’s near West Main Street, so I could hear the loud traffic and see the cars through the trees. At approximately 4 pm there was a lot of traffic, about 1 car every 2 seconds, but at night there’s probably about one car every 30 seconds to the best of my memory from when I used to live in Hopkinton. Taking into account there’s almost nothing for kids to do in Hopkinton, I wondered if teenagers visited this location to do drugs and drink alcohol because it’s near the road but hidden from view.
When it was time to go I walked to the house next door, 35 West Main Street. It’s very close to where Mikayla’s body was found. If she was killed at that location and screamed the residents of this house and people on the road would be able to hear her. I couldn’t understand why the news reports said Mikayla was found at 34 West Main Street which is across the street and further north. It was probably only a mistake that keeps getting repeated, unintended fake news.
When I got home I thought about how sad Mikayla’s death was. I thought about people driving by and seeing the Hopkinton welcome sign, decorated so pretty by the Hopkinton Garden Club, only to see a memorial for a deceased black LGBT teen 10 seconds later. I thought about all the racism I had experienced and seen in Hopkinton, and how that’s now being revealed on national news. Hopkinton is going through a necessary transformation, and I don’t think anyone expected Mikayla to be the cause of so much change.
