Nearly 60 friends and family members gathered in Ocean Ridge on Aug. 29 for a candlelight vigil for Cassidy Craig. Cassidy’s parents, Johnny and Deborah Craig, are on the right. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Joe Capozzi
Ocean Ridge police are investigating the death of a Lake Worth Beach teenager whose body was found in a vacant lot just east of the Ocean Avenue bridge leading to Boynton Beach. The body of Cassidy Craig, 18, had been lying in a vacant lot at 21 E. Ocean Avenue for at least two days before being discovered around 7 p.m. Aug. 12 by a man walking his dog, Ocean Ridge Police Chief Richard Jones told The Coastal Star.
Jones said police and the county medical examiner’s office were awaiting results of toxicology tests before they could determine a cause of death. Although Jones said she might have died of a drug overdose, “the investigation will continue as a homicide until we prove otherwise.’’
Police said she might have died at a different location.
“The scene doesn’t appear to contain all the evidence that would be contained if that is where she expired,’’ Jones said.
On Aug. 29, nearly 60 of Cassidy’s friends and relatives, some from as far away as New Mexico, gathered at sunset for a candlelight vigil on the grassy spot at the base of some bushes where her body was found. Many of them wore red, Cassidy’s favorite color.
A short white lattice fence strung with white lights surrounded the spot, which was covered with more than a dozen bouquets of roses and flowers by the time the vigil ended with her friends and family holding candles toward the sky.
“She was just my baby girl,’’ said her mother, Deborah, choking back tears. Losing her “is unbearable. You can’t understand it unless you go through it. It’s horrifying.’’
She said Cassidy, who would have turned 19 on Oct. 16, was homeschooled and three credits shy of earning her high school diploma. She loved going to the movies and “had an infectious laugh. She always made us laugh with her smart-aleck comments,’’ her mother said.
Cassidy’s surviving relatives include her father, Johnny Craig, her older sister, Priscilla, and her maternal grandfather, Dr. Angelo Pace.
“I just want to know what happened. That’s all I want to know,’’ her mother said.
Deborah Craig praised the detectives with the Ocean Ridge Police Department for their compassion and professionalism during the investigation.
And she offered a message to anyone with information about who dumped Cassidy’s body in the lot.
“Please just step up. Do the right thing. If you do the right thing then people can forgive that,’’ she said. “And for the people who did do this and left my daughter there, I hope you actually burn in hell.’’
Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Ocean Ridge Police Department at 561-732-8331.
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