Family wants justice after taking victim off life support
SOUTH PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A violent attack on a woman left her family with the heartbreaking decision to take her off life support.
Now, the family of Lauren Aukett wants her attackers brought to justice.
Aukett's niece Dominique DeMichele remembered her aunt with warm words.
"She was very smart and very, very funny. She was very outgoing. She was a beautiful person. She would give you the shirt off her back if you needed something," Dominique DeMichele said.
But DeMichele does admit that the 33-year-old had serious troubles recently.
"She was on the street, she was using drugs, but she was trying to get her life back on track. She was trying to get clean the last couple weeks of her life," DeMichele added.
On Wednesday April 5, just after 6:30 a.m., police were called to the report of an unconscious woman bleeding from the head.
Aukett was found on the steps of South Philadelphia High School at Broad and Snyder.
"She had blunt force trauma to her head. She was attacked while she was sleeping," said DeMichele.
She also said the attack on her aunt was especially violent and compounded by the fact that it took days to identify her and notify the family that she was in the hospital.
"She suffered multiple strokes and seizures. She had no skin on her back. They drug her. The skin was off her feet, her ankles, parts of her legs," DeMichele added.
Unfortunately, on April 15, Aukett died after being removed from life support.
The City of Philadelphia is offering up to $20,000 in reward money for the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.
"So it's like somebody knows something, and I just really hope that they are brought to justice so that it doesn't happen to somebody else, and that her kids have peace," DeMichele said.
Anyone with information should contact the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS.
All calls will remain anonymous.
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