Stanford grad student missing

Parents Forum
1

<p>I just wanted to make people aware of this although we know little so far. Stanford always gives the impression of being a very safe place and of course we do not know what has happened, but this is just very scary:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/the_valley/16538259.htm[/url]”>http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/the_valley/16538259.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://origin.insidebayarea.com/ci_5077204[/url]”>http://origin.insidebayarea.com/ci_5077204&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

2

<p>hi patient,</p>

<p>I saw this on the news. Apparently her car is also missing, so if something happened to her, it was probably off campus. Hope she’s all right.</p>

<p>Stanford is a pretty safe campus, but there have been sexual assaults over the years on campus and around it. The campus is very big and, at night, not always well populated. Perhaps its location and relative safety gives students a false sense of security compared to more urban schools.</p>

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<p>I had not heard about this. Please keep us informed.</p>

4

<p>Actually there were two armed robberies on campus last year–one in son’s parking lot, near Meyer library. Definitely isolated incidents, but as sac says in a way the generally low crime rate may lull us into too much security.</p>

<p>I will post updates and I do believe it is quite possible this is not foul play but whatever happened it doesn’t sound good. My heart goes out to her parents.</p>

5

<p>She is an ee grad student. We have a friend in that dept.</p>

6

<p>This story is showing up in our local news daily. I feel ominous about this. Promising, happy student. Graduate of MIT. Just finished her comps. Looking forward to the future. Gregarious person. </p>

<p>Very upsetting.</p>

<p>The campus is actually very spread out. Acres & acres, a lot larger than people often expect. Students often ride bikes between classes, just to make their next class (not unlike UC Davis). The adjacent area of upscale Palo Alto is in itself a very lovely niche of suburbia, and considered safe, but a campus, any campus, can be a place for predators. Could be an accident, too, of course, with her car. Either way it does not look good, for someone who kept in communication with others.</p>

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<p>Just became aware of this last night. Hoping for the best . . .</p>

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<p>Any campus can be unsafe - some are just more unsafe than others. I hope the best for this young lady and her family. I graduated from Stanford 28 years ago - when the school was smaller and Palo Alto and the surrounding area far less urban than it is today. When I was a freshman, a young woman was horrifically raped and murdered right in the sanctuary of Memorial Church in a crime that I believe remains unsolved to this day. Crime can happen anywhere, any time. I have my first child going off to college next fall and three others following. I’ve told them “stay alert” at all times. Always know what’s going on around you. Be observant of the people near you. Keep to official paths and out in the open. Walk with confidence and purpose. Travel with friends. I believe if you do these things you will significantly reduce the chance of being a random victim of personal assaults.</p>

9

<p>I am trying to drum that message into my 17 year old daughter, who thinks I am extremely paranoid. I keep telling her, never a good idea to go out alone at night. I also would let her go into the city with one friend who was more street savvy, but not her other friend (who is more of a ditz, like her), which she has never understood. </p>

<p>And next year, she’ll be on her own. Kind of scary.</p>

10

<p>I am terribly, terribly sad to say that they have found the young woman’s car with a body in the trunk, in Santa Rosa (about 2-3 hours’ drive). It feels like a member of our family. <a href=“CBS Los Angeles - Breaking Local News, Weather & Investigations”>CBS Los Angeles - Breaking Local News, Weather & Investigations;

11

<p>Looks like a very sad ending. There will undoubtedly be lessons to be learned by our kids in what happened to this poor woman. </p>

<p>What I can’t understand - absolutely CANNOT understand - is how the father learned about the discovery of the car and the body from the news media and not the Santa Rosa police or Stanford authorities? Unforgiveable.</p>

12

<p>Extremely sad.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16546488.htm[/url]”>http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16546488.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

13

<p>The news said there were indications that it might be a suicide.</p>

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<p>sfgiants:</p>

<p>It’s hard to imagine that she commited suicide then locked herself in the trunk.</p>

15

<p>So sad. The reports indicate she was only 23, arriving in Stanford in 2004 (that would put her then at 20 or 21) to pursue a PhD, with a Bachelors and Masters degree from MIT already under her belt. It is reported that she achieved perfect scores on her SAT’s, all A’s in high school, and all 5’s on her AP’s. And she left in broad daylight at 10ish AM to go shopping. Where did it say there was suspicion of suicide?</p>

16

<p>Regarding the suicide suspicion</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/16547061.htm[/url]”>http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/16547061.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>link doesn’t work, here is text:</p>

<p>Missing Stanford student’s body found in her car
Associated Press
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - The body of a missing Stanford University graduate student was found here Thursday in the trunk of her car and investigators said the case was “consistent with a suicide.”</p>

<p>Police found the silver Toyota Corolla belonging to Mengyao “May” Zhou, 23, an electrical engineering student missing since Saturday, around 7 a.m. in a parking lot at Santa Rosa Junior College, Sgt. Lisa Banayat said. Officials at the community college reported first seeing the car there four days earlier.</p>

<p>“There are some items in the vehicle that would be consistent with a suicide,” she said, declining to elaborate. “At this point we want to stay open-minded and look into every possible scenario, but there are things in the vehicle that would be consistent with that.”</p>

<p>The Sonoma County coroner’s office scheduled an autopsy for Friday.</p>

<p>Zhou was last seen Saturday morning, when she told her roommate at Stanford’s graduate student housing complex that she was leaving to run errands. Her father had offered a $25,000 reward for tips leading to her whereabouts.</p>

<p>“That’s horrible,” her academic adviser, Professor Stephen Boyd, said upon learning the body had been identified as Zhou. “She was an absolutely top student. She was highly recruited. … This is very sad.”</p>

<p>Stanford Vice Provost Greg Boardman said in a statement that school officials “continue to offer our full support and prayers to the Zhou family.”</p>

17

<p>that is horrible</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/25/BAGHENPEUS4.DTL[/url]”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/25/BAGHENPEUS4.DTL&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

19

<p>That’s just so sad.</p>

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<p>If they indeed rule this to be a suicide, this might be the reason. Too much pressure (on herself, from her parents) to be perfect.</p>