(This story is by the Bennington Banner, in which it first appeared online Dec. 21.)
[D]ORSET — Authorities say a woman’s body recovered from the Dorset Quarry on Wednesday fits the description of a Bennington College student who was reported missing over the weekend.
Hadil Marzouq, 21, was last seen in Bennington on Saturday. Vermont State Police said they searched the quarry because the car she was driving was found parked near it on Sunday night.
Divers found the body beneath the ice near the back of the quarry at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, State Police Detective Lt. Reg Trayah said. The body was sent to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Burlington for further investigation. Police did not officially announce a cause of death by press time on Wednesday night, nor did they confirm its identity.
Police began searching in and around the quarry on Tuesday. Marzouq had left the Bennington home where she was living sometime on Saturday. She was reported missing on Sunday after not returning home. Police located her vehicle that evening near the quarry, off Route 30 in Dorset.
Marzouq, a native of Palestine, lived with a host family in Bennington. A junior at Bennington College, she studied public action and conflict resolution. After her disappearance over the weekend, numerous friends and classmates shared missing person posts on social media. On Wednesday, many took to social media to mourn her loss and share condolences to her family.
Bennington College President Mariko Silver, in a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, said: “In her too brief time here Hadil touched all of us with her light, her friendship, and her determination to make our community the best it could be. Her friends, community, and the world will forever bear the imprint of our time with her.”
Plans will be made for a campus gathering to honor Marzouq’s life and legacy when students and faculty are all back on campus. The last day of classes before the college’s winter field work term was Dec. 9. Classes are scheduled to resume Feb. 21.
The former Norcross-West Marble Quarry is privately owned and a popular swimming hole in the summer months. Police had said they had no information on whether Marzouq was familiar with the Dorset area.
The state police scuba underwater search and recovery team lowered divers as well as a submersible drone to search underwater. Crews, assisted by K-9 units, also searched the wooded area around the quarry on foot. Detectives from the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation were working with the Bennington state’s attorney and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to determine the cause of death.
