CORNWALL, VT — Vermont State Police Search and Rescue Team members located a body in a field west of Middlebury College campus at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
The location is in Cornwall near The Knoll, the college’s organic farm.
Police secured the area, and Vermont State Police began a death investigation.
The body will be brought to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for an autopsy to confirm identity and determine the cause and manner of death.
The autopsy is expected to be performed Friday.
Initial investigation does not indicate that the death is suspicious.
The discovery came during the ongoing search for Middlebury College student Lia Smith, 21, of Woodside, California.
Smith was last known to have been seen on campus Friday night, Oct. 17, and was reported missing Sunday, Oct. 19.
State police investigators are leading the death investigation with assistance from the Middlebury Police Department and in coordination with the Vermont Attorney General’s Office.
Vermont State Police will withhold the identity of the deceased individual until after the autopsy.
Thursday morning, a comprehensive search began of multiple locations in and around Middlebury.
Participating agencies in the search included the Middlebury Police Department, the Vermont State Police Search and Rescue Team, game wardens with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, representatives from various Addison County law-enforcement agencies, North Country Search Dogs, New Hope Search and Rescue, and members of the public including the Middlebury College community.
Investigators continue to ask that anyone with information that could assist in this case call the Middlebury Police Department at 802-388-3191 or the Vermont State Police barracks in New Haven at 802-388-4919.
