Body found during search for missing Vermont college student Lia Smith

A physique has been discovered through the seek for a lacking Vermont scholar who was final seen on campus a couple of week in the past.

Lia Smith, 21, was final seen on the Middlebury Faculty campus the night time of Oct. 17 and was reported lacking that Sunday, the college introduced. Smith, a trans girl from California, is a senior double majoring in laptop science and statistics and a former athlete on the Middlebury girls’s swimming and diving staff.

On Thursday afternoon, round 1:30 p.m., Vermont State Police stated they discovered an unidentified physique in a area west of the Middlebury Faculty campus. The placement the place the physique was discovered is within the city of Cornwall, close to The Knoll, the college’s natural farm, the company stated.

21-year-old Lia Smith was reported lacking on Sunday after she was final seen on campus on Friday round 9 p.m. (Middlebury Police Division)

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Police stated they’ve secured the realm and begun an investigation into the dying. Presently, officers are awaiting an post-mortem to verify the sufferer’s id and decide the trigger and method of dying.

That post-mortem will happen Friday in Burlington, Vermont. Fox Information Digital has reached out to the Vermont Division of Well being for remark.

Presently, investigators stated they don’t imagine the dying is suspicious.

Signal of Middlebury Faculty in Vermont. (Toby Talbot/AP)

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Police initially stated they might maintain a reside press replace on Thursday afternoon, however canceled it shortly earlier than it was because of start. Middlebury police known as in further businesses, together with the Vermont State Police, New York State Police and the FBI, to help after looking for Smith for a number of days utilizing floor searches and drones.

Middlebury Faculty President Ian Baucom stated in a press release on Instagram Thursday that the faculty is “doing every little thing we will to help our group presently.”

“I do know that is extraordinarily tough information to obtain as we proceed to carry Lia and all her household and associates near our hearts,” he wrote. “As at all times: maintain your self and one another.”

Previous chapel on the campus of Middlebury Faculty in Vermont. Middlebury Faculty is taken into account a “Little Ivy”, a time period for small, elite liberal arts faculties with a tutorial status corresponding to the Ivy League. (John Greim/Loop Pictures/Common Pictures Group by way of Getty Pictures)

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Middlebury Faculty is a prestigious personal liberal arts faculty, generally known as a “Little Ivy,” in Addison County, Vermont, positioned within the state’s Champlain Valley. Based on the faculty, the campus inhabitants is roughly 2,800 college students.

Fox Information Digital has reached out to the Middlebury Police Division and Middlebury Faculty for remark.