This text appeared in the ‘Top Story’ email newsletter sent on September 6, 2025.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—The shadows lengthened as Michael Cole walked through the cemetery near sunset to his daughter’s grave, where he dropped to his knees and kissed the cool, dark stone of her marker.Head bowed, his hands tenderly swept away bits of grass clinging to the headstone’s base, fingers lingering on shells and heart-shaped stones left as tribute to Lauren Cole’s life. She was 26.
