‘Loss for us all’: U-Portland holds Mass for Melissa Jubane

PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — The shocking death of Oregon nurse Melissa Jubane rocked the community of the lives she’s touched both here and in Hawaii, where some of her relatives are mourning .

Sunday afternoon, a mass was held at University of Portland in remembrance of the 2018 U-P graduate. The Chapel of Christ the Teacher on campus opened their doors in her honor for Mass as her former fellow students, teachers, friends, family and co-workers continue to process their grief.

The Dean of Nursing, Joane Moceri, helped organized the remembrance Mass for Jubane. Moceri said the professors who knew her are deeply saddened by this loss and are trying to get a grip on what happened to their former student.

“It really was shocking. All of the faculty and staff were just devastated to think about this happening to one of ours, because once you’re a (University of Portland) Pilot, you’re always a Pilot here,” Moceri told KOIN 6 News. “And we don’t even have words really to describe sort of the depth of the grief that we feel.”

“It’s a tragic time but to see the faculty and staff who have touched and formed and created such great nurses to come back at this moment and say, yes, we need to be together and pray,” said Fr. John Donato, the vice president of student affairs. “That’s exactly what I expected us to be about.”

Jubane was “just very, very sweet, very kind,” said one of her former professors, Halina Brant-Zawadzki. “As a nurse, we both ran in similar circles at Saint Vincent’s, and so a lot of her coworkers were my coworkers back when I graduated from here. And, they just they said she’s just a wonderful nurse. Everybody loved her. Just the sweetest, sweetest young woman.”

Moceri said the faculty described Jubane as “a bright, positive student, really supportive of her peers, and so excited to be a nurse.”

And that’s part of the tragedy, she said.

“Here’s someone who, you know, was a nurse during COVID, here’s someone who, you know, walked in every day giving her very best to her patients. And now we don’t have her any longer. And it is a loss for all of us.”

Jubane left a legacy not only prevalent on the college campus but the wider nursing community. As a testament to that, a vigil for Jubane will be held on Monday, September 8, by the Oregon Nurses Association from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Ridgewood View Park in Portland. Attendees are encouraged to bring a rose to honor her memory.

Just two weeks ago, Jubane got married in Hawaii to Bryan Llantero, an active member of the U.S. Navy who lives in Washington state.

The investigation

Around 10:18 a.m. on September 4, Beaverton Police Department got a call to check on Melissa Jubane after she had not clocked in for her morning shift at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.

Officers then went to Jubane’s apartment in Beaverton and searched it. Beaverton police said efforts by investigators and her family to contact her on her cell phone “were unsuccessful” since it appeared her phone was turned off.

By 3:12 p.m., Jubane’s disappearance was registered with national law enforcement databases, Beaverton police said. Later that night, law enforcement released limited information about Jubane’s disappearance on social media.

A days-long search for Jubane followed. On Thursday, police used a blood hound to search the apartment complex and interviewed people. On Friday, about 100 people showed up to two separate community-led searches throughout the day.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, Beaverton police released new information regarding the arrest of a suspect — Jubane’s neighbor, 27-year-old Bryce Schubert — and that they had recovered Jubane’s remains. Schubert now faces second-degree murder charges, according to Washington County authorities.

Schubert is expected to make his first appearance in a Washington County court on Monday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.