‘She would do anything for anybody’: Jennifer Kalicki, victim in Tewksbury domestic assault case, was dedicated friend, family says

Jennifer Kalicki.

Jennifer Kalicki helped her brother move while wearing a dress and high heels.

It was a hot, sticky Arkansas summer day in June 2007. Kalicki had flown in to help her younger brother, Matt, move back up to New England where the two would eventually live together.

“Of course I wasn’t prepared and so the truck still had to be filled,” Matt recalled.

Although fashionable, Jen’s attire wasn’t necessarily optimal for the day’s work. Then again, she hadn’t expected the physical labor, either.

But that was Jen: ready to help, no matter what — looking fabulous all the way.

“She just got right to it,” Matt said.

The memory is among those that have come rushing back to mind, as loved ones piece together recollections of the life lived by Jen Kalicki, a fashion-forward, fiercely loyal friend who would go the extra mile for just about anyone, her family says.

The 39-year-old human resources professional was found dead Sept. 15 in the Tewksbury apartment she shared with her boyfriend, Eric Griffin, 40, who’s charged with assault and battery on a household or family member in connection to her death, prosecutors said.

The discovery was made days after Jen had bailed Griffin out of jail when he was arrested for possessing a Class B drug with intent to distribute.

Now, her co-workers, friends, and family will gather at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Tewksbury State Hospital grounds where she worked, 365 East St., to honor Jen with a candlelight vigil. A celebration of life service will be held Sunday in Andover.

“That was a blip in her life,” her brother, Matt, 32, said of her death. “There was so much other stuff.”

Born in Boston April 24, 1980, Jen was enamored with “anything beautiful” from an early age growing up in Billerica, Matt recalled.

She took up dance, and, for as long as Matt can remember, Jen painted her own nails, dressing them up as if she’d gone to a salon.

“My mother would make her go outside in the middle of winter to do them because she would use the professional products and everything that were toxic,” he said.

A keen eye for a good deal, Jen also had the wardrobe to complement whatever design or color she chose to emblazon on her hand. (The styles would change weekly.)

She loved purses, particularly Coach ones, and, of course, high heels, Matt said.

“Even her sneakers had high heels,” he recalled. “She wore them even when working out. I don’t know how she did it.”

Her dog, Bentley, a Yorkshire terrier, was another constant in her life.

An alum of Billerica High School, Jen earned an associate’s degree from Middlesex Community College and a bachelor’s degree from UMass Lowell.

Matt and Jen Kalicki. “I hated selfies so she would always grab me for them,” Matt said.

She worked full time while in school, taking on online and night courses when she could, and, at one point, working two jobs, according to her brother.

She started a career in human resources that most recently led her to Tewksbury State Hospital, where she was a personnel officer.

The work suited her: Jen, insanely organized, was quick to formulate plans and options, lend money, or, yes, even help someone move while wearing high heels, for just about anyone in her life that needed assistance, Matt said.

When Jen moved out of their shared apartment in New Hampshire last year, he saw approximately 15 years worth of records and paperwork she held onto, from old cases for clients to documents for cars she didn’t own anymore, he said.

Jen was also perhaps the strongest advocate for those around her.

“She would do anything for anybody,” her brother said. “If you’re a friend, she would stick by you and defend you to everyone — and loudly.”

Matt had experienced that protection himself many times.

“If anybody said anything bad towards me or about me, she was right there to defend me immediately,” he said. “She wouldn’t even give me a chance to defend myself. She would just jump right in.”

Last fall, Jen moved in with Griffin about a year after they started dating, according to Matt.

After Griffin allegedly attacked Matt last year — which Jen stepped in to stop — she confided details about her relationship more with friends than her brother, Matt said.

He didn’t think Griffin would lash out at Jen the same way, although it appears it happened more than once, he said.

His sister often tried to help Griffin in his struggle with substance abuse, according to Matt.

“She wanted to believe the best in him,” he said. “That’s how she was.”

A domestic violence case against Griffin involving Jen was dismissed on Sept. 9. Four days before she was found dead, Jen had bailed him out of jail on Sept. 11.

Matt said his sister had a restraining order against Griffin at the time, but a judge allowed her to drop it.

Jen’s family and friends want to see that part of the law changed somehow, so that such an order can’t be immediately dismissed, he said.

“It should be harder to do,” he said.

A GoFundMe campaign organized by Jen’s friends had raised over $3,000 by Thursday afternoon. Donations will go toward the memorial services and to assist Jen’s family, the page says.

“I’m hoping that they find out the truth and justice is going to be served,” Matt said about the case against Griffin. “That’s really all I can hope for at this point.”

For Matt, Jen’s death has left a tremendous hole.

The two siblings, after living together for years as adults, texted constantly.

The laughs and inside jokes traveled easily that way.

“Every time I see a stupid commercial or strange person, think of a movie quote, take a picture of my cat, bake, or deal with any number of life experiences, I know I will want to send it to her and laugh about it,” Matt wrote in a letter to Jen’s friends a few days after her death. “For that split second, I will forget and the hurt will start fresh.”