In 2013 I was a freshman at Emerson College in Boston, MA. During my first few weeks of school, I struggled with finding my people, so much so that I begged my parents to let me leave. However, a few weeks later I met Brenna O'Brian and my entire college experience was changed for the better. One of the first times we hung out she invited me to her birthday dinner on Newbury Street! I think we’d only met a few days prior but that’s who Brenna was, once you were in her life, you were in it fully. The moment I became friends with Brenna, we said we knew we were soul sisters. Brenna showed me the kindness, the friendship, the fun, the love, the support, that everyone needs in a college best friend. We rushed our sorority together and took believing we were soul sisters to a new level. We did everything together and shared the strongest of bonds. We got each other through all the up's and down's that college has to offer and remained close best friends until her murder on August 26th, 2021, at the young age of 25. 

The morning of August 26th, 2021, I woke up to 2 missed calls from Brenna's mom, Jennifer Roberts O'Brian. Over the years, I had formed a relationship with Jenny-Mom (as Brenn told us to call her) and so to receive a call was not out of the norm, but I did instantly feel panic. I had talked to Brenna every day in the days leading up to August 26th. She had opened up to me about her depression and her struggles with remaining sober. My very last text from her was saying that she had flushed everything and that she loved me. That was on August 25th. 

On August 26th, the O’Brian family received a call in the middle of the night urging them to the home of Mike Reese. It was there that Brenna’s mom Jennifer and father Kevin found their daughter in a body bag, her beautiful curls spilling out. Immediately upon arrival the O’Brian’s knew several things had already gone wrong in the handling of Brenna’s death. For starters, Brenna was found undressed and it was evident that Mike had not called the police for hours, and that he’d cleaned up around her. After a toxicology report it was revealed that she had been injected with four times the deadly amount of fentanyl in an injection site behind her right knee, a place where Brenna would not have been able to reach herself and has no history of IV drug use. The Elmira police do not plan to pursue her case and have ignored every attempt of the O’Brian’s to supply them with evidence that Mike Reese is a serial rapist and a murderer. Since Brenna’s death 7 months ago, the O’Brian family has received dozens of messages from other women sharing their abuse stories by the hands of Mike Reese. Ranging from sexual assault to being drugged. 

We have also learned that Mike was on parole when Brenna died, and when another individual went to the ICU because of him, he remained only on parole. There has been ZERO accountability for the harm (and murder) Mike Reese has caused not just my best friend, but to his several other victims. And the Elmira police continue to sit back and close her case, painting her as a drug-abuser, which is not true. 

The O’Brian’s are fighting tirelessly with local police, DA office, with finding legal counsel, and have reached their end with local news outlets for support. 

For that reason, I am calling on Emerson College, Brenna’s alma-mater to help us get Brenna’s story shared nation-wide. They have the connections we need to help put pressure on the Elmira Police Department and DA’s office. As a community, we can fight for the justice of Brenna’s murder and the other women who have been hurt by Mike Reese. We do this not just for them, but for the potential women in the future who he might hurt. 

As a college that prides itself on “shaping society and culture”, where “people collaborate to generate ideas and to inspire action”, we are asking Emerson to please help share Brenna’s story. Please guide us into the progress we need so that Brenna’s family can have peace, so that Brenna’s murder will spark change in Elmira, and get this monster off the streets so that he stops harming people and filling his town with deadly drugs. 

I am asking my friends, my family, all Emerson college current students and alumni, to please stand with us. As a collective, we can make change. 

Thank you for taking the time to read Brenna’s story and I hope you will join us in our petition for Emerson College to Ensure National Coverage of Brenna’s Murder and the Blatant Mishandling of her Case. 

With love and gratitude,  

Melissa Rosenberg

Class of 2017