Friends remember Autumn Pasquale fondly

In the evenings after school, Autumn Pasquale tore around the driveway of a friend’s Clayton home, jumping ramps on her white BMX bike with a tight-knit trio of friends.

On Tuesday evening, the 12-year-old’s longtime friend and Clayton Middle School classmate RJ and two other friends made their usual runs across the driveway without the familiar presence of Autumn — her bike now a piece of evidence in the ongoing investigation into her death.

“It makes me mad sometimes,” RJ said of the smacking pain of Autumn’s death. “It feels like she is still here and I could go to her house and we could bike but we can’t do that.”

Just days before turning 13, Autumn Pasquale was by all accounts a typical tween.

A seventh-grade student at Clayton Middle School the blonde-haired 12-year-old snapped portraits of herself with her cell phone, followed pop music, loved BMX biking and kept up with friends via different Facebook accounts.

She was on her white bike on Saturday when she left her High Street home to go cycling at Scotland Run Park. But this time she didn’t return home, her body instead discovered in a recycling bin on Monday night — ending some 60 hours of widespread searches that involved hundreds.

The bike was recovered Tuesday afternoon in a home close to where her body was found.

“She didn’t deserve any of it,” RJ’s mother Michelle Doughty said Tuesday.

Doughty said Autumn Pasquale came to her home nearly every day after school. Some days she would drive RJ, Doughty and two other friends to local parks to ride and on others they would set up ramps and ride routes around the driveway.

By 8:30 p.m., Doughty would ferry the kids back to their parents. According to reports, Autumn lived with her father, her two siblings, her father's girlfriend, and the girlfriend's children.

While she was fully assimilated into life with the family, Doughty said Autumn Pasquale was always conscience to keep in check with her father, calling to ask if she could stay for dinner.

Two weekends ago Autumn went camping with the Doughty’s, jumping hills on her bike with RJ.

While quiet, Doughty said Autumn was quick to fit into others and smiled easily.

On a Facebook page Autumn Pasquale wrote “I like to hang out with my friends and ummmmmm listen to music and ummmmmmmmmmmmmm i play soccer yeppp thts about it.”

On the page Autumn indicated she liked Snookie, Justin Beiber and Sponge Bob Square Pants.

But the petite girl also had a love for adventure, describing herself as a fan of BMX, kickboxing and skateboarding.

It was around 11:30 last Saturday night that Autumn’s father stopped over to say Autumn was missing, Doughty recounted.

The following morning Doughty and her children joined in the search.

“My kids have been there through everything,” she said Tuesday. “It’s rough for RJ. He just stares out.”

“I think they are more in shock right now.”

Doughty herself is wishing the finality of the tragedy could somehow be reversed.

“You just want to wake up from a dream,” she said.

On Autumn’s Facebook page on Tuesday friends and others who had learned of the tragedy left comments mourning her death.

“Rest easy, babygirl,” one girl wrote. “You'll never know the effect you had on me and the rest of our town. We will always remember you and forever keep you in our hearts.”

source : courierpostonline.com