A body pulled from the Mississippi River was identified Thursday as University of Minnesota student Jennifer Houle.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner said the 22-year-old died of freshwater drowning south of the 10th Avenue Bridge, according to a press release from the medical examiner’s office.
Officials haven’t determined whether Houle jumped or fell from the bridge’s four-foot railing.
The business senior went missing at about 1 a.m. on March 27. She was last seen at Blarney Pub and Grill in Dinkytown.
Minneapolis police said one of its surveillance videos showed Houle entering the river from the 10th Avenue Bridge the night she went missing.
Authorities began searching near the 110-foot-high bridge the weekend after Houle disappeared.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said they pulled the body of a young adult female from the Mississippi on Wednesday evening. The body was identified as Houle on Thursday.
Houle, a member of Pi Beta Phi and Women in Business, was set to graduate from the Carlson School of Management in May.
About two hundred people participated in a vigil on March 29 at Stillwater Area High School, from which Houle graduated. More than 1,000 people attended another ceremony on Tuesday outside of Coffman Union.
The University made counseling services available for students who are grieving, with some specifically designed for CSOM students and Pi Beta Phi sorority
members.
