Updated 11:02 a.m.
A Barnard College freshman was fatally stabbed to death in a Manhattan park near the Columbia University campus on Wednesday.
The New York Post reports that 18-year-old Tessa Majors was found by a school security guard in Morningside Park in upper Manhattan at around 5:30 p.m Wednesday. Majors had suffered multiple stab wounds and was transported to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
A law enforcement source reportedly told NBC News that a witness had seen multiple people running from the park near the area of a staircase where the security guard first found Majors. According to the New York Post, Majors is believed to have been killed by a group of three or four males who had attempted to rob her.
“We will find the perpetrators of this crime and bring them to justice,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter, according to NBC News.
“We’ve lost a young woman full of potential in a senseless act of violence … I want every student and every member of faculty to know your city will be with you in the days ahead.”
Investigators reportedly found a trail of blood on a staircase leading out of the park towards Morningside Drive, indicating that Majors had tried to fight her way towards a security guard booth after she was stabbed. The security guard on duty was on patrol at the time of her attack. Her cell phone was found at the scene.
According to the New York Daily News, police followed another trail of blood to an apartment building on Amsterdam Avenue where they found a 16-year-old male who fit a witness description. He has been taken into custody, but police have not confirmed if he has been arrested in connection to the murder.
Barnard College is an woman’s liberal arts school affiliated with Columbia University and located near its Morningside Heights campus.
Majors is originally from Virginia, and her parents are traveling to New York City on Wednesday, according to the New York Post.
Majors had recent posts on her Instagram account, indicating that a band she had formed in high school had recently released an album and played its first New York City show.
This is a developing story. CrimeOnline will provide further updates when more information is available.
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[Feature image: Tess Majors/Instagram]