Sister of Missing Newton Teen Turns to Reddit Community For Support

Photo via Reddit.com

The alleged sister of a Newton teenager, whose body was found over the weekend in the woods in Natick, described the harrowing story of discovering her sister’s remains in a detailed Reddit post on Sunday.

Within hours of Newton North High School student Karen Douglas’s body being discovered by authorities, Sonya Maria Douglas turned to the online forum to thank the community for their continued help during the search for her sister, and recap what had happened throughout the day up until they located her missing 18-year-old sibling.

“We looked around the woods behind Strawberryhill Road and Dorset Lane. We posted her picture all over town. We spoke [to] many people. We returned home. We were talking about where Karen might be and my mom mentioned a stone structure that is in those woods. We figured it was very much worth a shot,” Sonya Maria wrote in her post. “Our former neighbor went out to look and shortly thereafter we received a phone call that 911 had been called and police and an ambulance were en route. We rushed to and arrived at the scene to be informed by officers that my sister had indeed been found, and that it was too late.”

Karen went missing on October 3. Her parents realized their daughter was gone after attending a parent-teacher conference at Newton North High School that evening, where school officials notified them that Karen didn’t show up for classes that day. Her body was found Sunday, October 6, in the woods in Natick. Police ruled out foul play and suspicious activity. According to her older sister, Sonya Maria, drugs may have been involved, but the family won’t know more until toxicology and autopsy reports are returned.

In the post on Reddit on Sunday, a Reddit user who called herself Sonya Maria described the scene where her sister was found:

I stood over the stretcher and the canvas bag that held my sister and I broke down. I had stood there in shock for so long, surrounded by my family and the pastors from my church, and a close family friend. But I broke down when we gathered around the stretcher to say a last prayer. I sank to the ground and became hysterical over the loss of my sister. The others said their words as I gripped the bar of the stretcher. I slowly stood up and sang to her the song “Cats and Rabbits” from Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland.” It was a song that she always asked me to sing to her when we were little, when she was feeling lonely or scared, or just wanted to hear me sing it and to revel in our moment.

Sonya Maria then thanked other members on Reddit for their continued support during the search for her sister. In the days leading up to the discovery in Natick, Sonya Maria posted fliers online in a Google document so others could print them out and hang them in the community surrounding Newton.

According to Sonya Maria, she frequently interacted with various users, as people offered to help search for her sister.

“I want to thank Reddit for being such a supportive network over these past few days. I want to thank those who shared Karen’s picture, those who tweeted her information, those who PMed me and offered to help search. It means more than you will ever be able to comprehend,” she wrote.