Jake Seaburg, a former Rindge resident who was killed this weekend in a stabbing at a Jaffrey apartment, was passionate, always had a smile on his face, and was “invincible,” his family said.
“He got his life taken way too soon. He had so much more life to give and love to give,” his sister, Nicole Letourneau of Jaffrey said in an interview with the Ledger-Transcript. “It’s just terrible, what happened. No one should have to live with death.”
Seaburg, 23, of Acton, Massachusetts, was stabbed to death while visiting an apartment in Jaffrey in the early hours of Saturday morning and police are investigating it as a homicide.
Following an autopsy Saturday, the state Attorney General’s Office announced that Seaburg had been killed by a stab wound to the chest.
State and Jaffrey police were on the scene in Jaffrey Saturday investigating around a cordoned-off apartment building on the corner of Route 202 and Laundry Way.
In a press release Saturday, Jaffrey Police Chief Todd Muilenberg assured the public that while the death is suspicious, there is no active threat to the public.
“We will release further information when possible but we wanted our citizens to know that they are safe and a full investigation is underway,” Muilenberg wrote on the department’s Facebook page.
Jaffrey Police directed further questions about the death to the State Attorney General’s office.
N.H. Attorney General Director of Communications Kate Giaquinto would not confirm whether there had been any arrests in the case or any alleged perpetrators in custody, though the Attorney General’s Office has announced that all relevant parties in the incident have been identified.
Seaburg had local ties, Letourneau said, and their family had lived in Rindge for a good portion of his childhood, attending Rindge Memorial School and starting high school at Conant High School, before moving to New York to be closer to Jake’s grandmother. He was in Jaffrey on Saturday to visit friends, and was planning to move back to town, Letourneau said.
The news was particularly shocking, Letourneau said, because one of the words she uses to describe her brother is “invincible.”
Seaburg got his share of bullying growing up, being on the smaller side, Letourneau said, but he didn’t bow down to it.
“He stood up for himself, and never let them knock him down,” Letourneau said.
Seaburg loved sports, and was a part of the Monadnock Mountaineer football team as a child, and later followed his brother into wrestling.
“It was always a competition, but they taught each other a lot,” Seaburg said.
Seaburg’s former high school wrestling coach at Chautauqua Lake High School in Mayville, N.Y., Ken Rowe, said Seaburg was one of his quieter team members, “hardworking and respectful,” but what he truly remembers about him isn’t his athleticism – though he was good enough to be offered a sports scholarship for his wrestling – but how he was off the mat.
Rowe said his youngest son was on the team at the same time as Seaburg, though younger than him, and Seaburg had taken him under his wing as his son was starting out on varsity.
“He watched out for him. He was a big brother to him, and that’s one of my better memories,” Rowe said. “I have a lot of kids that behave around me, as an authority figure, but that’s not their personality. But he just genuinely was a great kid. Everyone liked him. He was just a good dude.”
After high school, Letourneau took a job with ONYX Corporation in Acton, where he did ground labor, ran heavy machinery and did landscaping.
“He did everything you handed to him. He took a lot of pride in his work,” Letourneau said.
Seaburg was good natured, quick to smile, and a favorite babysitter for Letourneau’s children. Letourneau said her brother revived a game they once played growing up, of riding down the stairs on a twin mattress, with her own children.
Letourneau said the family is in a “holding pattern,” and hasn’t been told much about the investigation or any information about who was involved. She said the family is just trying to hold themselves together.
“With all that this year has brought all of us, I’d just like to say, don’t live in regret,” Letourneau said.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page to pay for funeral services, available at www.gofundme.com/f/jake-seaburg-memorial-fund-unexpected-death, and a memorial fund, available at www.gofundme.com/f/jake-seaburg-memorial-fund.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.