College student, 18, brutally stabbed to death during savage robbery at New York City park very close to campus
NEW YORK: A group of unidentified young men mugged an 18-year-old college student and then stabbed her to death before leaving her body in a New York City park, on December 11.
Tessa Majors, a freshman at Barnard College who was from Charlottesville, Virginia, was walking down a flight of steps into Morningside Park when the young men approached her. After demanding money from her, the group fatally stabbed her in the stomach multiple times, ABC reported.
However, the stab wounds did not immediately kill her. She managed to get to a nearby security guard booth to ask for help from a Columbia University guard, but unfortunately, the booth was empty because the guard was doing his rounds at the time.
When the guard returned, he saw Majors lying unconscious on the ground and called 911. When emergency responders arrived, they found Majors' uncharged cell phone along with a butterfly knife lying next to her. It has not been determined if the knife was the weapon used to kill her.
There was a second call placed to a 911 dispatcher from a witness regarding Majors' murder. The caller said they saw someone wearing a green jacket at the scene who they thought could be a suspect.
Although no one has been arrested yet, the police have taken into custody a 16-year-old boy, who is a known robbery suspect. He was taken from a nearby housing project shortly after the stabbing incident. Authorities said the teen was wearing a green jacket that was similar to one described by a witness and there was a trail of blood leading into his apartment, described by police sources as a "hub of criminal activity".
Other men in the group were also being questioned.
"I guess being from a smaller town she was too naive to think about walking alone in New York City. She just shouldn’t have been there," Majors' grandmother, Martha Burton, told The New York Daily News.
Barnard College president Sian Leah Beilock also issued a statement confirming the victim's death.
"Tessa was just beginning her journey at Barnard and in life. We mourn this devastating murder of an extraordinary young woman and member of our community. This is an unthinkable tragedy that has shaken us to our core," she said.