The Middlebury College student whose disappearance spurred a multistate search is dead, according to the Vermont State Police.

Lia Smith died by suicide, the state medical examiner ruled on Friday. She was 21, a senior at Middlebury and from Woodside, California.

Investigators said they found Smith's body in a field west of the college campus at about 1:30 p.m. in the town of Cornwall, near The Knoll, the school's organic farm. Her identity wasn't confirmed until an autopsy the next day.

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