Boston Globe 12/22/13: The Parents on a Mission: Malcolm Astley and Mary Dunne. Across cultures and religions, it’s a point of near universal agreement for parents: There is no fate crueler than losing a child. So when vibrant 18-year-old Lauren Dunne Astley was murdered a month after her graduation from Wayland High School in 2011, her parents could have been forgiven for turning inward in bitterness. Anyone who glimpsed Malcolm Astley and Mary Dunne sitting through this year’s murder trial of Lauren’s ex-boyfriend could sense just how devastated they continue to be by the theft of their only child’s life. Yet when the sentence of life in prison was read in March, Astley walked to the killer’s parents and hugged them. They’d lost a child, too.