Misrach Ewunetie, an undergraduate student at Princeton University, was found dead Thursday afternoon, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s office.
“Ms. Ewunetie’s body was found outside on the facilities grounds behind the tennis courts at approximately 1 p.m. on Thursday by a facilities employee,” Mercer County prosecutor Angelo Onofri and Princeton University assistant vice president for public safety Kenneth Strother Jr. said in a joint statement.
While there were “no obvious signs of injury and her death does not appear suspicious or criminal in nature,” an autopsy will be conducted by the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine Ewunetie’s cause and manner of death.
The 20-year-old student from Ohio was last seen near her dorm, Scully Hall, on Friday around 3 a.m.
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Her brother, Universe, told Good Morning America that his sister’s phone pinged a location at an off-campus residence after 3 a.m. The location was a 30-minute walk from her dorm.
He described it as “very odd.”
“It’s pretty far away,” he said Thursday. “And Princeton is a big campus and it’s very insular. Right. So it’s very odd that her phone would be off campus like everything is on campus.”
After her family contacted Public Safety requesting a wellness check, the department issued a missing alert and a massive search began.
Students and the local community were urged to come forward with any information they may have, while crews used helicopters, drones, and watercraft to sweep the area.
Nearly one week after Ewunetie was last seen, a facilities employee found her body “outside on the facilities grounds behind the tennis courts.”
“It is with great sadness that we share heartbreaking news about the death of Misrach Ewunetie ’24,” VP W. Rochelle Calhoun said in a statement. “Misrach’s death is an unthinkable tragedy. Our hearts go out to her family, her friends and the many others who knew and loved her.”