Help Us Lay My Brother Moses to Rest

Hi everyone,

I never thought I’d be writing this, but my brother Moses went missing in Roscoe, NY, in late August 2024. He had struggled with schizophrenia since he was 19. After months of searching, he was finally found on March 17, 2025, during a search for two missing teenagers in the same town. A week later, we learned the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. His case is still under investigation.

Moses was an artist who loved graffiti and street art. He even painted a mural in his high school—Vanguard High School in Manhattan. He loved music, especially hip hop, and would write raps while watching BET’s Hip Hop Awards and Cypher sessions. He was lovable and a jokester, always cracking jokes and making people laugh even when things were hard. Moses was more than his illness—he was creative, funny, full of heart, and deeply loved. He mattered, and we want to honor him.

My other brother, Othaniel, and I are now doing everything we can to give Moses the funeral he deserves. After meeting with the funeral director, we were told the service and burial will cost around $8,700. On top of that, we need to clean out his apartment—Moses had become a hoarder, and we’ll need to rent a 15–20 yard dumpster, which will cost about $700.

I’m also traveling back and forth to handle these arrangements, but I don’t have a car, so I’ll be relying on buses and Ubers, which adds to the costs.

We’re trying to raise these funds as soon as possible so we can move forward with the service and begin to grieve properly. It’s just me and my brother handling all of this—and we truly can’t do it alone.

Any donation, no matter the amount, will go directly toward giving Moses a proper send-off and handling everything he left behind. And if you can’t donate, sharing this would mean the world to us.

Here’s how your support can help:

Thank you for taking the time to read our story, for holding Moses in your thoughts, and for helping us bring him home.

With love,

Lucy

Other Ways to Give:

Venmo: @milliarzu

Cash App: $mjgifs

Please give Lucy the space and time she needs to grieve. While your messages and words of support are deeply appreciated, she’s not in a place right now to respond or engage. Just knowing people are thinking of her means a lot.

About Lucy

I’m writing this on behalf of my dear friend Lucy, who is doing everything she can right now to get through this unimaginable loss. She’s a passionate, talented, and hardworking single mother—someone who constantly shows up for others, even when she’s struggling herself. She would never ask for help unless she truly needed it. I’m sharing her story because she deserves support, and because Moses deserves the kind of farewell that reflects how much he mattered.

With love,

Madison