MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury Police Department this week closed its investigation into the death of Sun Mi Shin, the 28-year-old Korean woman whose remains were discovered off a trail near the Battell Woods in Middlebury this past October.
Police Chief Thomas Hanley said in a press release on Wednesday that Shin had died in early September from dehydration/starvation.
“There is no evidence that any other person was involved in events leading to Shin’s death; that her condition was self-imposed,” Hanley said. “Shin’s diary and other documents along with entries on digital devices supported the conclusion that her death was planned and organized  with full conscious intent and excluded participation by others.”
At 11:43 a.m. on Oct. 21, Middlebury police received a call from a hiker who reported finding a body in the woods between Court Street Extension (Route 7) and Seminary Street Extension.
The police responded to the area and located human remains, which they removed and sent to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
The Middlebury Police Department Crime Scene Unit, Vermont State Police Crime Scene Team, Addison County Sheriff’s Department deputies, an assistant state’s attorney and the assistant medical examiner all spent time at the scene over that weekend collecting evidence and piecing together the identity of the body and circumstances of the death.
The remains had decomposed to the point where forensic examiners couldn’t use DNA to ID the person, Hanley said at the time.
Shin’s last known residence was in Fairfax, Va.