The family of the teenage girl who was murdered last week gathered today at the site of the grisly attack to mark her 19th birthday without her.

As News 12 Long Island has reported, Lauren Daverin, of Lynbrook, was found dead on a footbridge in Rockville Centre last Thursday. Police have charged 18-year-old Maxwell Sherman with second-degree murder for allegedly strangling her.

Daverin's grieving family brought a memorial banner and blue and white balloons today to the footbridge where her lifeless body was found. Blue was Lauren's favorite color, and the white balloons were to signify the "the doves that are carrying the balloons to heaven" for her, her family said.

Each family member wrote their own personal message on a balloon for the teen, who had married a member of the Air Force just 10 months before she died. The family then released the balloons into the sky.

The Daverins are still trying to make sense of what happened the night of Aug. 22, when Lauren Daverin was hanging out with friends on the footbridge before she was later found dead.

"It's like a hole that will never be refilled or replaced," said the victim's sister. "No matter how much love and support we get, there will always be an empty hole in our hearts."

As the family copes with their immense pain, they have turned their attention to making sure that Lauren's alleged killer is brought to justice.

"Justice is now our main fight, and then maybe when this is all over, then I can sit and make some kind of sense of why he would maliciously do that to my daughter," said Kathleen Daverin, Lauren's mother.