Fund Set Up To Honor Slain Binghamton University Student

RYE BROOK, NY — A website has been set up to raise money to honor the memory of Joao Souza, 19, a Binghamton University student and graduate of Blind Brook High School, who was stabbed to death Sunday on the SUNY campus. According to Warren T. Goz, who created the GoFundMe page, the site was originally set up to help the parents of Souza with the expenses associated with his death.

However, the family asked that the money raised be donated to a fund in honor of Souza to help underprivileged children in Brazil pursue their dreams of playing soccer. The family lives in Brazil.

Souza was known to be a star soccer player in high school.

“The family feels that such a fund would honor Joao’s memory by helping others do what he loved most,” Goz said.

As of early afternoon Thursday, April 19, more than $19,000 was donated in less than 24 hours. The goal was set at $30,000.

Binghamton University student Michael M. Roque, 20, of Masssapequa, Nassau County, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Souza.

Roque pleaded not guilty and is being held in jail without bail.

Souza's death came six weeks after Long Island resident and Binghamton nursing student Haley Anderson, 22, was strangled March 8. A fellow nursing student, Orlando Tercero, 22, was taken into custody in Nicaragua a few days later.

Authorities said he fled the country before Anderson's body was discovered.

Go Fund Me is a Patch promotional partner.

Photo via GoFundMe.