{"id":56982,"date":"2025-12-01T11:59:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T11:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/56982\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T11:59:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T11:59:13","slug":"devastating-reason-mourners-wore-pink-to-services-for-li-teen-slain-by-ex-in-botched-murder-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/56982\/","title":{"rendered":"Devastating reason mourners wore pink to services for LI teen slain by ex in botched murder-suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a thousand mourners packed a Long Island funeral home Sunday to remember Emily Finn \u2014 many wearing pink to honor the bubbly teen killed in a senseless botched murder-suicide.<\/p>\n

On display inside the Raynor & D\u2019Andrea Funeral Home in West Sayville were Emily\u2019s pink ballet slippers, a poster of the smiling teen with her flute from the high school marching band and reminders of the 18-year-old\u2019s many academic achievements before she was shot dead, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend.<\/p>\n

Her devastated mom, Cliantha, wore a pink sweater \u2014 part of the family\u2019s wish to display the girl\u2019s favorite color, which saw dozens of pink ribbons, bandanas, boots, jackets and bows at the funeral home.<\/p>\n

Emily Finn, 18, was remembered as a talented ballet dancer and \u201cspark of life\u201d at her Long Island wake Sunday. GoFundMe<\/p>\n

Dozens of loving mementos adorn the West Sayville funeral home for Emily Finn\u2019s wake after her shooting death. New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just had that special spark,\u201d said Heather, a friend of the slain teen. \u201cShe was so full of life, and she loved her family and her brother and her grandparents so much.<\/p>\n

Family and friends arrive at the wake in West Sayville, New York on Sunday afternoon. New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cAll she ever wanted was to do good for the world, and it all got taken away, just like that,\u201d the grieving teen said. \u201cI can\u2019t stop crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emily\u2019s ex, 18-year-old Austin Lynch, is now facing second-degree murder charges for allegedly shooting her dead inside his Nesconset<\/a> home Wednesday during her Thanksgiving break from college \u2014 then shooting himself in the face, according to police.<\/p>\n

Emily Finn, 18, was studying to be a teacher at SUNY Oneonta when she was gunned down, allegedly by her ex. @emily_finn1015\/Instagram<\/p>\n

The accused killer survived the self-inflicted blast. <\/p>\n

The dead girl, a recent Sayville High School graduate, was a talented ballet dancer who trained at the American Ballet Studio in Bayport \u2014 even landing the lead role in a production of \u201cNutcracker\u201d last year.<\/p>\n

The young beauty was studying to be a teacher at SUNY Oneonta when she was killed.<\/p>\n

She was to be cremated, with her ashes displayed in a pink box inside the funeral home alongside a bouquet of pink flowers, baby pictures and more recent photographs.<\/p>\n

Emily Finn, 18, with her accused killer, 18-year-old ex-boyfriend Austin Lynch, who survived a botched murder-suicide. Facebook\/Melissa Lynch<\/p>\n

Along with her mom, Emily\u2019s father, Ryan, and her brother, Kyle, hugged weeping mourners.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmily was the best, just the best,\u201d another friend, who only identified herself as Hailey, told The Post. \u201cShe was an amazing dancer and an amazing friend, and such a family person.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing around all these people who love her so much, I keep imagining her being among them, living and smiling,\u201d she added. \u201cI\u2019m just completely crushed. I\u2019m devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynch, who had recently joined the Marines<\/a>, will be arraigned on the murder charge as soon as he has recovered enough from his wounds, the Suffolk County District Attorney\u2019s Office said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a thousand mourners packed a Long Island funeral home Sunday to remember Emily Finn \u2014 many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10690,776,57,14034,238,9,11,10,30117,773],"class_list":{"0":"post-56982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-funerals","9":"tag-long-island","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-murder-suicide","12":"tag-murders","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-prom","17":"tag-suffolk-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}