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Lawrence church in mourning after killing of teen

Police said they had arrested Mathew Borges, 16, at this Lawrence address in connection with the murder of Lawrence High School student Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino, 16.Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe/Boston Globe

LAWRENCE — As Pastor Victor Parra looked out over his congregation on Sunday, his heart was heavy with the knowledge that Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino would never again join the faces who gather each week for The Free Methodist Church of New Hope services.

The enterprising, selfless 16-year-old never missed a Sunday before he disappeared Nov. 18, Parra said. But the discovery of Viloria-Paulino’s body last week crushed the hopes of his pastor, along with many others who had prayed for his safe return. Parra said his church will never be the same.

“He was calm, very shy, he didn’t speak much, but he was always willing to help out with anything that was needed,” Parra said.

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Speaking in Spanish, Parra described Viloria-Paulino as the type of kid who would take on any task, “even without asking him to.”

“If there was anything that needed to be done, and he saw it, he’d do it,” Parra said.

Those close to Viloria-Paulino are grasping for answers after his decapitated body was found along the Merrimack River on Thursday afternoon. A classmate, 16-year-old Mathew Borges, was arrested Saturday morning on first-degree murder charges.

The Essex County district attorney said Borges, who will be charged as an adult, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Lawrence District Court.

The Viloria-Paulino family is reluctantly planning to attend Borges’s court date. Carlos Viloria, the father of Viloria-Paulino, said they want to see “what comes next.”

No one came to the door Sunday at an address listed for Borges.

At the church, which gathers at the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence, Parra said he had known Viloria-Paulino since 2007, when Parra first started preaching in Lawrence.

Parra said Viloria-Paulino helped create manuals for youth activities, and he assisted with activities for youth and the homeless.

Recently, the church held an event, “Submerged in the waters of God,” for its young members. The event, which included other area Methodist churches, had small cups to be given away as favors. Parra said Viloria-Paulino hand-labeled each of the roughly 150 cups.

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“It took him a long time to get it done,” said Parra.

Parra said the Viloria-Paulino’s killing has had a deep impact on the community. After authorities confirmed they had found his body, congregants gathered at the church to mourn — all of them in tears.

“The family is very well respected here,” Parra said. “They’re deeply loved.”

Members of the church, some of whom had known Viloria-Paulino since birth, have stood with the family through the tragedy, Parra said.

“Every day, members of our church head to their house to give them support,” Parra said. “We’re going to help with the funeral costs.”

Parra said the church took the lead on the efforts to find Viloria-Paulino.

“Ninety percent of the ads, the fliers that were posted looking for him, we did it,” Parra said. “We distributed fliers to all of the public spaces, to all of the taxi drivers. We contacted all the local media.”

Parra said he had more than 200 fliers in his car when he got a phone call telling him to meet the family at the Lawrence police station.

According to Parra, the family knew they weren’t getting good news.

“The police weren’t going to call to just to say that they found him safe,” Parra said. “We knew this would be something tragic. It was even hard to breathe after that.”

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The police didn’t say that it was Viloria-Paulino’s body at first, but Parra said he and the family knew it was him when police said they had found a teen boy.

“There was nobody else missing, nobody else with those characteristics,” Parra said. “All hope of finding him alive went up in smoke.”

Parra said he had never seen Borges before Saturday, when he saw the teen’s photo in a news article online. Borges is not a member of the church.

According to Parra, neither he nor the church ever knew Viloria-Paulino to be in any trouble.

“Death never makes sense,” Parra said. “But this hate, I don’t understand it.”


Aimee Ortiz can be reached at aimee.ortiz@globe.com. Follow her on twitter @aimee_ortiz.