By Anne Levin

Misrach Ewunetie

It has been two months since Princeton University student Misrach Ewunetie was found dead on October 20 in an area behind the campus tennis courts, after being missing for nearly a week. But the cause and manner of her death has yet to be announced by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and the University.

Asked for an update, the University’s Communications Office referred to a November 1 letter to the campus community saying the Prosecutor’s Office “will publicly release the cause and manner of Misrach’s death on final determination by the Medical Examiner’s Office, which may take several weeks. Law enforcement authorities continue to affirm there is no evidence or suspicion of foul play.”

Contacted Tuesday, the Prosecutor’s Office said no report on the cause of death has been issued.

Ewunetie, a 20-year-old member of the Class of 2024, was on full scholarship at the University. She had come to this country with her family from Ethiopia as a child, and was valedictorian of her high school class in Cleveland.

Ewunetie was last seen by a suitemate at the Scully Hall dormitory at 3 a.m. on Friday, October 14, brushing her teeth. She had been out late, volunteering at an event at Terrace, the eating club on Prospect Avenue to which she belonged. By Saturday, most of the students were leaving for fall break. Ewunetie’s family became alarmed when she missed a scheduled appointment for her American citizenship application that day. They reported her missing to the University on Sunday, October 16.

There is no explanation yet as to why it was reported that Ewunetie’s phone was last active around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 16 — in Penn’s Neck in West Windsor, on the opposite side of U.S. 1. That, plus an incident on campus in which an unknown person had removed a student’s door from its hinges on October 15, though no work order had been filed, have caused concerns about safety and transparency among some members of the campus community.

The case has attracted widespread attention. On December 10, an article in the New York Times said, “The absence of much real information left a churn of speculation. That Ms. Ewunetie’s body was found in a relative remote spot raised more questions than it answered in the minds of some students and parents. As one professor explained, the young men and women in her classroom were outraged over what they perceived as a cynical lack of transparency.”

The University’s November 1 letter to students acknowledged that there were frustrations over the limited facts that were available. “During an investigation, communication is often limited by protocol, to protect evidence-gathering and to avoid misleading the public,” it reads. “We can assure you that if at any point campus safety were compromised, everyone would have been alerted immediately.”

Despite the assurance, the University planned to change the security protocols for residential colleges after the incident. “The Council of College Heads is working to make sure that residential college dorms will remain secured, with access limited to students and a short list of authorized faculty and staff,” the letter reads. Additional plans to enhance lighting on campus and expand the use of security cameras were also referenced in the letter, “to further respond to concerns recently raised by students and staff.”