WASHINGTON — Tricia McCauley’s Tuesday evening Yoga class became a memorial service to the woman her friends and students said radiated positive energy and cared deeply about the well-being of others.
“All the stuff that she did, she just helped people live fuller lives and take care of themselves and be freer, happier people,” said Kim Atkinson who worked with McCauley at Yoga District on First Street NW near Rhode Island Avenue. McCauley, an actress and yoga instructor, also served as a health coach and nutritional adviser.
“It’s crazy how people just don’t value life, they just take people’s life for nothing. I wish God would come down and stop it,” said Michael Johnson, who has lived for 12 years in the neighborhood where the yoga studio is located.
Many of the people who came out to mourn McCauley had gathered Monday night to search for her before her body was found in her car — she was strangled.
Adrian Duane Johnson, 29, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, has been charged with her murder. Police do not believe the two knew each other and are still piecing together what may have happened.
Under police escort, dozens of mourners walked holding candles from the yoga studio several blocks to the community garden at The Park at LeDroit, where McCauley kept an herbal garden.
With her garden illuminated with candles, McCauley’s friends and students offered remembrances of her. The mourners also sought the peace and serenity of yoga chants in the hour of grief.
