Family of Lunenburg murder victim rallies to support son, cover funeral costs

LUNENBURG — Family and friends of the Lunenburg woman stabbed to death last week are rallying to support her teenage son and to help with funeral expenses.

Two GoFundMe accounts have been established in recent days.

Maria Murray, 53, was attacked at the Meadow Woods mobile home park complex at 1790 Massachusetts Ave., about 8:45 p.m. Dec. 26, according to a police report filed with court records.

Murray, with stab wounds in her back, was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, court records show.

Officers later apprehended her live-in boyfriend, Orlando Garcia Rosado, on Interstate 290 in Worcester. Rosado, 57, was arraigned on charges of murder and assault and battery on a household member in Fitchburg District Court.

In his GoFundMe appeal, Shane McManus of Townsend said he is looking to help his 15-year-old stepbrother and victim’s son, Walter.

“Due to the circumstances, our family was unprepared for any funeral expenses,” McManus said in his post. “In order to help with the cost of the funeral as well as other basic needs for Walter, we ask if you could donate anything you can.”

In his GoFundMe appeal, Landon Martins of Lunenburg said he’s raising money to help pay for his aunt’s funeral expense. In the post, Martins said Murray was a single mother who was working two jobs to take care of her son, who was in the house at the time of the assault.

“She was so loving,” Martins said. “I can’t believe she is gone. Anything helps. We just want her to have a beautiful funeral to help remember her beautiful life.”

According to McManus, the victim’s son is living with Martins’ mother, Christine Harding, and Walter’s father, Walter Murray, who “are fully supporting him as he goes into his freshman year” at Nashoba Valley Technical High School.

McManus states that Murray was “a very sweet woman who deserved to watch her son grow up.”

Bernard Progin, who lives across the street from Murray, said he brought the boy to his house on the night of the incident as police converged on the scene. Walter Murray, the boy's father, eventually came to pick him up, Progin said.

Progin spoke fondly of the woman, a single mother.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Family of Lunenburg murder victim Maria Murray rallies to aid son