Grief, Anger, Fear, and Guilt: Comments from a Friend of Kathryn Newhouse at Her Candlelight Vigil

On Saturday March 19, 2022, a 19-year-old Asian-American autistic trans woman living with mental illness issues was murdered by her father (filicide) in their family home. Her father then died by suicide using the same gun. Her name was Kathryn (Katie) Newhouse. Yesterday, friends and neighbors organized a candlelight vigil to honor her life and acknowledge her death.

Her friend Kristen Mork delivered comments that they graciously agreed to share here. These comments have not been edited. ~ Sue

My comments from the vigil last night…

I am here today to speak to the life of Kathryn Newhouse. I plan to share my emotions regarding this tragic event, which based on conversations with her friends, are not unique to me. To avoid any surprises along the way, I will speak to my grief, my anger, my fear, and my guilt.

I was reminded of Kathryn just last night when I saw a movie about databases. I expect she would also be looking forward to the sequel.

If you had even passing familiarity with Kathryn, you would know that she had a love of IT jokes like that. Kathryn and I primarily interacted online because of the pandemic. Despite the clear differences in age we had much in common.