BEIRUT: Investigators intensified efforts Wednesday to determine reasons behind the death of a university student whose body was found in an empty lot in the capital’s Hamra district, a security source said.
Speaking to The Daily Star, the source said authorities were trying to establish if the death of Nicole Assaf, 21, was the result of a crime, or suicide.
The body of Assaf, a civil engineering student at the American University of Beirut, was discovered behind Midtown Hotel and Suites in Hamra in a pool of blood around 7 p.m. Tuesday, the source said.
A photo of the victim taken after the incident, which was seen by The Daily Star, showed her lying face up on the pavement, dressed in nylon pants, a short black tank top and a denim jacket. She was wearing a pink running shoe on her left foot. The other foot was bare.
According to Al-Jadeed TV, a coroner who examined the girl’s body reported that it showed no signs that she had engaged in a fight before her death.
The lot where she was found is located two blocks from the university. Surveillance cameras installed around the hotel were also examined.
“I’m extremely sad to share with you the news of the death of student Nicole Assaf, who died early this morning,” AUB president Peter Dorman said in a statement.
“Nicole was a fourth-year civil engineering student, an honor student with an overall average of 89.88 and a member of the Olympic Club, which helps people with disabilities get involved in sports.”
A source at Midtown Hotel denied that Assaf was a guest or resident at the hotel, which also rents rooms to students.
“She was not in the hotel last night,” the source said, suggesting that the Assaf may have fallen from a floor of the construction site behind the hotel.
Investigators examined the area where she was found and the construction site for clues.
The construction site was cordoned off with yellow tape Wednesday after investigators left.
A man, standing behind barriers blocking entry to the unfinished building’s yard where he works, told The Daily Star that Assaf fell from the unfinished building, and not from the hotel.
The worker said that the building’s janitor was the only person on the site at the time of the incident. He was interrogated by police.
Friends of the victim said that she came from Byblos, north of Beirut, and lived in an apartment in Hamra with one roommate.
A brilliant student, according to her friends, Assaf was ranked first in her civil engineering class in fall 2012 and spring 2013.
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