Medical examiner: Missing App St. student killed herself

BOONE, NC (AP) — The North Carolina medical examiner’s office has ruled that the death of a freshmen at Appalachian State University was a suicide.

Multiple media outlets reported that the medical examiner has formally concluded that 18-year-old Anna Smith of High Point killed herself in September.

The report from the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Raleigh said the woman went into the woods behind the school and asphyxiated herself.

Smith was last seen Sept. 2 on the campus of the Boone school. Hundreds of people searched for her before the body was found Sept. 13. She left a note.

The medical examiner in Watauga County had left the cause of death pending until the review by the state medical examiner’s office.

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