"I wanted to scream at the family for having the audacity to be upset when they'd essentially sentenced this woman to death."

I'm a Staff Writer for BuzzFeed, often covering topics like '90s–'00s nostalgia, relationships, food, history, celeb culture, and anything else the internet is buzzing about.

Note: This post contains descriptions of death, suicide, medical trauma, addiction, eating disorders, and severe illness that may be distressing for some readers.

"I felt like I could not breathe. I still cry if I think of her. It was the time when that Ed Sheeran song 'The A Team' was on all the time. It made me think of her and still does. I still cry when I hear that song. 

And her killer has never been found. I still Google things every so often to see if there's any progress on her case, and there never is."

"When I think about him every once in a while, it makes me feel like life is so unfair and it gets me bitter and angry. The fact that he was my age made everything tougher."

"This guy wasn’t some dumb kid. He was a manager at a grocery store — and only 23. You can glean with all the visitors that he meant a lot to people. It was just so sad."

"I was standing in the corner of the room trying (and failing) not to cry, wanting to just scream at the family for having the audacity to be upset when they had essentially sentenced this woman to death."

"I was used to stillbirths; it's just something you deal with in my job, and you learn to compartmentalize. But this wasn't supposed to happen this way. It was absolutely horrible."

Corpse in a hospital bed covered with a head and suffering woman next to him

"I don't know what happened to her after the intensive care unit, and it all haunts me."

"Sometimes when I drink I think about him — how his breath sounded, the look of terror in his eyes, how he smelt, how his fingers felt when gripping my shirt. I'm so turned off from alcohol now. It feels wrong to drink after caring for a patient like that."

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, call or text 9-8-8 in the US or Canada. For substance use support, call 1-800-662-4357 (US) or see Canada's substance abuse resources. For eating disorder support, call 1-800-931-2237 (US) or 1-866-633-4220 (Canada). Help is available.

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.