Slain teen Emily Finn’s kind-hearted, yet prophetic words still ring in her grieving mother’s ears.
“Anger is just the result of hurt,” she told her mom, Cliantha Miller-Finn, as they drove to their West Sayville home a few short weeks ago.
Now, Miller-Finn is taking her daughter’s advice after the effervescent dancer was senselessly gunned down, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend Austin Lynch, 18, in a botched murder-suicide last week.
Pews were packed at a funeral for Finn, 18, Monday inside St. John’s Lutheran church in Sayville — the same house of worship where the vivacious teen was baptized and received her first communion.
Fighting back tears, Miller-Finn powerfully eulogized her daughter as a “pure angel,” a Girl Scout from kindergarten to the end of high school and a SUNY Oneonta freshman studying to become a teacher, while still finding time to join the college’s 160-strong dance team.
“She had a calling — her path was to teach and then she would teach dance. She was going to be dancing, teaching, and enjoying life,” Miller-Finn said.
But Finn’s dreams were tragically cut short in a Nov. 26 burst of violence.
After a breakup ended their 3-year relationship, Finn went to Lynch’s home in Nesconset to return some of his belongings. He shot and killed her, before turning the gun on himself, police said.
Lynch survived, however, despite shooting himself in the face, police said.
A family friend described Lynch as heartbroken after his “puppy love” romance with Finn ended as she went off to college.
He’ll likely be arraigned on a second-degree murder charge when doctors medically clear him, a spokesperson for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said.
Lynch’s name wasn’t uttered during the funeral, for which mourners were encouraged to wear a splash of pink — Finn’s favorite color — and donate to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Instead, Finn’s joyous spirit hung over the service. Her cousin Luke strummed out a rendition of “Hallelujah” on his guitar and recounted how he was excited to share a birthday with the younger Finn.
“But then what happened was, all of a sudden, my birthday party was full of all princess decorations,” he said to laughs.
Miller-Finn told the bereaved crowd that she believes Finn has been sending her “signs” from the afterlife — flickering lights in their home and a lost cat meowing outside the wake.
Finn, her mother told the crowd, had brought home a rescue cat in June.
“She’s really letting us know,” she said. “It brings me so much peace to know she’s at peace.”
But lingering pain and unanswered questions remain, Miller-Finn acknowledged — as she turned to her daughter’s words about anger for solace.
“It’s obvious, there’s a lot of anger,” she said. “All of the questions left.
“Things that will need time to heal.”
