"MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - For several days, including overnight when the vast sky in rural Vermont turned black hole dark, hundreds of people searched the campus of Middlebury College, walking atop fallen leaves the color of cranberries and pumpkins, desperately examining every inch of ground. They combed through classrooms, dormitories and the athletic center. And then doubled back to them, again and again. Fellow students. Close friends. Townsfolk. The police. All looking for a missing senior, Lia Smith."
"someone whose laugh reverberated down campus hallways. And one Friday night in mid-October, without leaving any clues, she disappeared. "Lia are you alright?" texted Julia Nerenberg, a friend who graduated from Middlebury in 2025. "Idk if something's wrong but whatever is happening i will do anything i can to help you through it." Police found Lia's body six days later. They ruled her death a suicide."
Lia Smith was a 21-year-old transgender senior and former diver at Middlebury College who struggled to feel accepted. Hundreds of people searched the campus for days after she disappeared one Friday night in mid-October without leaving clues. Friends sent urgent messages offering help. Police found her body six days later and ruled the death a suicide. Friends and family say she wrestled with discomfort in her body and the broader unwelcoming climate toward trans people. Her father and friends contend that controversies over transgender women in sports and a hostile national climate contributed to her distress.
Read at Boston.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]