[T]he death of a young woman whose body was found in Middlebury one month ago has been ruled a suicide, according to the office of the chief medical examiner. Sun Mi Shin, a 28-year-old Korean national who lived in Virginia, was found by a hiker in a wooded area on the edge of town Oct. 21.
Middlebury Police Chief Thomas Hanley said the investigation is ongoing and that it will take considerable time to download and translate material from Shin’s computer and cellphone. Everything on the devices is in Korean, he said.
According to Hanley, Shin had a cellphone with her and was camped out in the woods for up to six weeks. She died of intentional starvation and dehydration. The body was badly decomposed and Shin’s remains were identified through dental records.
JoEllen Tarallo-Falk, director of the Vermont Suicide Prevention Center, said starvation was a very rare form of suicide that occurs over a long period of time and thus rather telling.
“Clearly she was extremely disconnected and the causes of that we don’t know,” Tarallo-Falk said.
“Obviously somebody living alone in the woods who dies of starvation has some very serious problems related to isolation and serious mental health challenges that led her to that kind of situation,” she added.
Shin’s parents who have cooperated with the investigation provided the Middlebury Police Department with her computer and the passcode to her iPhone. According to Hanley, they “knew she had come to Vermont and that’s it.”
Asked if Shin had any connections to or contacts in Middlebury, Hanley said it was too early to comment. “All that is speculation right now and we’re not going to get into that until we have a complete story,” he said.
In earlier statements the department said it was receiving assistance from the Korean consulate in its efforts to reach family members and relatives of the deceased, some of whom are living in California. Attempts by VTDigger to contact family members in Virginia and California were unsuccessful.
Shin appears to have left little in the way of a paper trail or sign that she was making her way to Middlebury. She was not reported missing, and the hikers who found her body had in fact gotten lost when they stumbled upon the remains near the Means Woods Trail, part of the Middlebury Area Land Trust. The trail runs from Seminary St. Extension to Route 7 south.
“A local person was hiking with his grandson, they got lost in the woods, got turned around in the wooded area, and discovered some human remains,” Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley told WNBC in October.
In Vermont the suicide rate has been steadily climbing over the last decade. In 2005 there were 75 recorded suicides or 12 per 100,000. Except for declines in 2009 and 2012 that number has gone up year to year. In 2014 there were 114 or 17.2 per 100,000, statistically higher than the rest of the U.S., according to the Department of Health. The state has a goal of reducing the number of suicides to 11.7 per 100,00 — below the national average — by 2020.
According to Shin’s death certificate, she was born in South Korea on Jan. 31, 1988, and lived in Fairfax, Virginia. Her remains have been interred at the Green Mountain Crematory in Northfield.
Hanley said there was no indication at this point that a third party was involved.
