Cyanide death likely a suicide

County officials confirmed Tuesday that their "working assumption" is that a sophomore who was found dead in her dorm room in September died by suicide.

Though the Mercer County medical examiner determined in September that Melissa Huang '07 died after ingesting cyanide, the manner of her death remains an open question nearly six months later.

Though "all of the factors point to [her death] being a suicide," according to county assistant prosecutor Angelo Onofri, he cautioned that the case will not be closed — and a manner of death announced — until results from a state computer crimes lab are available.

In January, Huang's personal computer was sent to the New Jersey State Police High Technology Crimes and Investigations Support Unit for analysis "just to determine if there's anything that may help shed some light on the case," Onofri said.

He declined to comment on what, if anything, the State Police are looking for on Huang's computer or why the computer was taken in January, three months after her death. Results from the state lab are expected by the end of the month.

If Huang's death is ruled a suicide, hers will be the second at the University in as many years. There was also one suicide in 1993 and two in 1987, according to Daily Princetonian archives.

Questions about how Huang obtained cyanide persist. The substance has no household or pharmaceutical purpose, and is typically encountered only in laboratories and industrial facilities.

Huang spent the summer working in the University's Ceramics Materials Laboratory, and whether she had access to cyanide there remains unclear.

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Garth Walters, director of the University's Environmental Health and Safety Office (EHS), said in a written statement released Tuesday, "It has not been determined if the cyanide was obtained from a lab, and there are other sources (e.g. chemical supply houses) from which cyanide compounds or other toxic substances can be ordered."

Walters added that "every individual who works in our laboratories receives thorough safety training" and that "we remain satisfied with our safety and security procedures."

There were eight cyanide fatalities nationwide in 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, according to a report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers' Toxic Exposure Surveillance System.