NH Graduate Student, 26, Found Dead In River In Vermont

LEBANON, NH — A 26-year-old Dartmouth University graduate student who had been missing from West Lebanon for nearly a week was found dead in the Connecticut River in Vermont Monday afternoon, the Lebanon Police Department said in an update.

Kexin Cai — who was studying in the psychological and brain sciences department — was officially reported missing Friday, two days after she was last seen near Drake Lane while leaving her home on an E-bike, according to police.

Investigators said they analyzed surveillance footage from two different businesses in the area that showed Cai heading south on New Hampshire Route 10 towards West Lebanon.

A key development came Monday, when a passing motorist reported seeing Cai's bike at the Boston lot on Thursday or Friday morning, according to police.

The search — conducted with the help of local law enforcement agencies, Dartmouth Safety and Security, New England K-9, Dhart Helicopter, conservation officers from the NH Fish and Game Department, and "many good Samaritans" — then zeroed in on the Boston lot and adjoining Wilder Dam area, police said.

Finally, around 4 p.m. Monday, a fisherman alerted authorities to a sighting he had along the Connecticut River in Windsor, Vermont, after which Cai's body was retrieved from the water and brought to shore at 5:36 p.m, according to police.

"Preliminary investigation suggests there is no foul play in this incident," police said.

Cai was a Chinese native who was in the second year of her doctorial program, The Dartmouth reported.

"Her research focused on communication challenges for people with autism, and she enjoyed hiking, skiing and road trips," the school paper reported, citing a campus email from the Dean of the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies Jon Kull.

According to Cai's partner, a research assistant in her department, Cai admitted herself to Dick’s House on May 13 due to a "mental health crisis," according to The Dartmouth. She was then transfered to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and released May 15.

"Kexin was an exceptionally gifted and humble researcher with a genuinely sweet personality," Kull wrote, the outlet weote. "She loved cats so much that she would sneak images of them into every poster or presentation."