(NewsNation) — Friends and family members of 13-year-old Florida cheerleader Tristyn Bailey were left heartbroken over her stabbing death in 2021.
Aiden Fucci,16, pleaded guilty to murdering her, and was sentenced to life in prison Friday morning. Before that, though, testimonies from her family and friends were heard as a judge determined what punishment to give Fucci.
Some statements were sent in, but never read in court. One, written by a now 15-year-old friend of Bailey, was obtained by NewsNation.
In it, the teen recalled what would have been the two’s first day of high school, an exciting day that was instead filled with dread and guilt.
“(Bailey) should have been taking pictures with the same butterflies in her stomach as the rest of us. But she wasn’t taking pictures. And she didn’t get to feel the excitement of the new chapter in her life,” the statement said.
Now, Bailey’s friend wrote, she thinks about how these “fleeting moments” were taken away from her.
“She was one of the few bright lights in this dark world and nothing will ever fill the infinitely growing void,” Bailey’s friend said about her in the statement.
To listen to the full statement, watch the video above.