A candlelight vigil will take place in Venice on Thursday evening in memory of the woman who was brutally attacked and died after being left in a coma following the attack along Venice’s canals two months ago.
Sarah Alden, 53, was one of two women attacked, sexually assaulted and beaten on Saturday April 6. Both women became unconscious after the attacks and Alden remained in a coma since the attack and was taken off life support on May 24.
Alden, a Massachusetts resident, was the mother of two sons and was about to move to Venice when the attack occurred.
According to a GoFundMe page set up to help pay for funeral costs, she planned to meet friends for breakfast on April 7, the morning after the attack, to tell them she was moving from Massachusetts to the Los Angeles area would move.
The alleged attacker Anthony Francisco Jones, 29was arrested a few days after the attacks in San Diego and charged with two counts of forcible rape and one count of sexual penetration by use of force, mutilation, torture, attempted murder and sodomy by use of force.
After Alden’s death, the prosecutor’s office announced that Jones had also been charged with murder.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the first attack occurred on April 6 at approximately 10:30 PM in the 2700 block of Strongs Drive, where Alden was approached from behind and struck with a blunt object, leaving her unconscious.
Similarly, about an hour later, the suspect attacked another woman as she walked along the Sherman Canal. That woman also suffered serious injuries but survived.
On Alden’s GoFundMe page, friends said she was looking for a new chapter in her life.
“She loved east coast sunrises and west coast sunsets,” a friend wrote on the page. “Sarah adored her two sons, her animals, and was blessed with a refined eye for vintage jewelry which she sold on roseark.com. At 53, Sarah wanted to start a new chapter in her journey; blaze a new trail In instead, her life was violently taken from her.”
The candlelight vigil will take place in the 2600 block of Grand Canal at 7:30 p.m.
