Lia Smith: Body found in the search for missing Middlebury College student, aged 21
Police have found a body in the search for a 21-year-old student who has been missing for several days.
Officers in Vermont discovered the body while searching for a missing Middlebury College student Lia Smith on the school’s campus on Thursday afternoon (October 23).
The Vermont State Police Search and Rescue Team found the body, which has yet to be formally identified, at around 1.30pm near The Knoll, the college’s farm located in Cornwall, the Middlebury Police Department said in a press release.
An initial investigation does not indicate that the death is suspicious, police said.
Lia Smith, a 21-year-old college seniorfrom California, was reported missing on Sunday (October 19). She had last been seen on Friday October 17 at around 9pm, police said.
Her father filed the missing persons report after he did not hear from her by phone, The Middlebury Campus reported. Smith is a double computer science and statistics major and she also competed on the women’s swimming and diving team, according to the college’s student newspaper.
Middlebury students had been joining authorities in the search for Smith, MyNBC5 reports. Fellow senior Lucy Schembre told the local news outlet: "We're a really small community. Even if you don't know someone personally, you definitely know somebody who knows them, and you've definitely seen them around. It's very jarring for somebody who's supposed to be here, to not be here."
“I know that this is extraordinarily difficult news to receive as we continue to hold Lia and all her family and friends tight in our hearts. As ever, please care for yourselves and one another,” Middlebury College President Ian Baucom said in a Facebook post Thursday night.
The body will be taken to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for an autopsy to determine cause of death and identity later today (Friday October 24), the statement said.