Las Vegas Sun

April 25, 2024

Harry Potter author reaches out to Texas shootings survivor

Cassidy Stay

Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer / AP

Cassidy Stay, second from right, the lone survivor of a family massacre in Texas, wipes her eye during a community memorial at Lemm Elementary School on Saturday, July 12, 2014, in Spring, Texas.

HOUSTON — The teenage survivor of a shooting rampage that claimed the lives of her parents and four siblings at their suburban Houston home has drawn the attention of Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling.

Rowling's publicist says the British author sent Cassidy Stay a letter and package.

Publicist Rebecca Salt isn't describing the contents, saying the package is private.

Speaking at a public gathering days after the shootings last month, the 15-year-old girl paraphrased a quote by Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of the Hogwarts school of wizards from the Harry Potter books. Stay said: "Happiness can be found even in darkest of times, if one remembers to turn on the light."

Stay survived a head wound by playing dead. Her aunt's ex-husband, Ronald Lee Haskell, faces multiple capital murder charges in the shootings.

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