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The heartbroken parents of a 17-year old college student seeks answers from a Georgia university after they learned about their daughter’s on-campus death through Facebook.
The body of nursing student Jasmine Benjamin was discovered earlier this month on a couch in her dorm’s common room at Valdosta State University.
Atlanta police said she had been dead for at least 12 hours and originally thought the teen had died of natural causes, but it was soon determined that the bright young student had been murdered.
Benjamin’s lifeless body was found in her dorm’s common area Nov. 18, 2012.
School officials contacted police, who reached out to Benjamin’s parents in Lawrenceville, Ga. but a family friend had already forwarded them a Facebook post about their daughter’s death.
To add insult to injury, authorities told Jasmine’s parents she “had been dead for at least 12 hours before she was found, because passers-by thought she was simply sleeping on the study room couch.”
“That’s the most disturbing part,” said James Jackson, Jasmine’s father.
“Aren’t there RA’s? What kind of school is this that they know someone’s laying on the couch to go check on them after a certain amount of hours?”
VIDEO: Parents Learn of Daughter’s Death Via Facebook…
(Video via CBS Atlanta 46)
Jackson and Jasmine’s mother, Judith Brogdon, had high hopes for their oldest daughter.
They looked forward to seeing the Central Gwinnett High School graduate make the four-and-a-half hour trip back to Lawrenceville earlier this week to share Thanksgiving dinner and Black Friday shopping with the family.
All that changed, when Lawrenceville police officers arrived at their doorstep around 4:30 p.m. last Sunday to tell them Jasmine was dead. She’d been found unresponsive on a couch in a study room of her dorm.
Campus police are cooperating in the investigation by interviewing students who may have clues about what happened to Benjamin, said VSU Communications Director Thressea Boyd.
A Facebook page has also been set up for students to provide tips.
Jackson describes his stepdaughter as a “very, very, very smart girl” who wanted to become a nurse like her mother, Judith Brogdon.
Police found no initial signs of harm on Benjamin’s body but are now investigating Benjamin’s death as a homicide. Authorities haven’t disclosed the reasons for the change, but they are awaiting autopsy results to gather additional information.
“To find out it was a homicide and that somebody actually murdered our daughter changed everything,” Jackson said. “It was like hearing the news all over again.”
According to the AJC, Jasmine had moved on campus at Valdosta State back in August, following several friends who also had enrolled at the south Georgia university. It didn’t take long for Jasmine to make many friends.
“She was just very sweet, I miss her hugs already; her walking up to me and just saying ‘Hey Kim how are you?’ Just giving me a hug and always smiling,” fellow freshman and close friend Kim Kelley told WALB News in Valdosta.
The university has issued a statement about the situation, saying that they are “continuing to work with law enforcement agencies in their ongoing investigation.”
The family moved to Georgia from Queens, N.Y. five years ago.
While some Facebook comments have already been turned over to law enforcement officers investigating the case, the family hopes friends, classmates or others who noticed suspicious comments will also alert authorities.
Anything that reveals a little more information than what’s publicly known about her death, those are the kind of comments police are looking for as someone who might warrant a closer examination.
Also of interest are “unusual comments or unusually timed” comments about her death.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are both now involved in the case.
Anyone with information about the teenager’s death is asked to call Valdosta State University police at 229-333-7815 or the Valdosta police crime hotline at 229-293-3091.
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Sad story. Prayers for the family
Lord have mercy… talk about rubbing salt in the wound. My prayers are with this family! <3
This world needs to washed in UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!
What the hell? OMG…this is horrible.
May god be with the family. smh
Praying…so sad
SMH! Oh how I pray!
VERY LITTLE media coverage in metro ATL. If she were white this would be national news!!!
That is sad and I agree with that comment strongly
So true!
TOTALLY AGREE! The sad thing is during my SOPHMORE yr of college, the SAME EXACT thing happened to a freshman. He was on the couch DEAD for 3 days from alcohol poisoning while his roommates just walked passed him! The boy even had a girlfriend! The family found out via the NEWS that their son was dead! R.I.P.
That is so HORRIBLE.
Very sad. I hope they get the answers and more importantly the truth.
Were is the media now? This is a parent’s worse nightmare. Prayers to the grieving family!
I’m so scared for our kids going off to college. This should be one of the safe places for them. When are we going to get a better control of the trash thats breeding out there.
This is so so. I hate that her parents found out on FB of all places.
This is awful, awful, awful. There were even people on Yahoo! saying negative things, i.e. As if it wasn’t the school’s responsibility to contact the parents. If you died at work, believe me, the hr department would contact your house. They wouldn’t wait until the police investigated for a day or two.
Unfortunately, they are not going to get any information from the students at Valdosta. One thing I know for sure is that teenagers are good for going completely silent when some real things go down.
These are the same human beings who will tweet every fart they pass, make sex tapes, and post every piece of their life on Facebook, but when something important happens they clam up. Those students know what happened, but they know how to back each other up in some mess. The line to hell is going to be exponentially long.
This is so sad. If it was a common area where she was found wouldn’t people coming and going wonder why she was still laying there in the same position all day and into the night?
I cannot imagine what the parents are going through at this time. My heart and condolences go out to them. SMH
I used to attend the University that htis occured! VERY SAD. VSU need to do better!!!!!
I don’t think the parents should blame the school or other students for her death. That’s how college is. It’s not unusual for students and faculty to walk past a sleeping student. There are so many students and everyone is just minding their own business getting to class and roaming around campus. Students sleep all over the place. Especially during finals when you are pulling all-nighters. You get sleep whenever or wherever you can between classes. That’s how it was at my University. I remember sleeping in the student lounge and thinking, "I hope nobody comes in here and wakes me up." This doesn’t sound like a homicide to me. There doesn’t seem to be a reason for someone to kill her. The girl may have taken some drugs or something. There are plenty of drugs at college. Maybe she took a sleeping pill or something. Or felt sick and laid down. Or it may very well been natural causes.
In a common area though? For 12 hours! What college student even has 12 hours for sleep?! It’s not a crime to not inquire, but damn some common sense or a little concern would have been nice. Maybe she could have been helped…maybe not. But 12 hours is a long time to be dead in a public place.
I’m with "Its her Business" on this one. Its a sad situation, but people go in and out of the common areas without noticing whats around them. And she could be mistaken for someone having a nap as each student pass by her as they go about their business. I can see how she can remain untouched for twelve hours in this situation.
Wow! Prayers for the family! I remember seeing this on the news. You mean to tell me Valdosta State University don’t know the cause of death? I mean, NO ONE seems to know what happened? Something is NOT adding up! SMH
I’m flashing back to my college days and I just dont see someone laying in a common area for that long with no one approaching her. I mean did she have a roommate…a friend no one was looking for her?! Such a sad story my heart ache for her family…you send your child off to school for a better life not to end it! Prayers for them…
How the f^^^ does a 17 year old die of natural causes?! I agree, there are RAs, roommates, maintenance…no one said anything? It is absolutely the school’s responsibity to inform the parents of a tragedy, NOT social media. Absolutely rediculous! I’d sue the hell out of that school.
At the college I attended, there is no way in hell that someone could have laid up on a couch for 12 hrs and not been awakened to be questioned. With that length of time, that means most people passed her twice that day, coming AND going-and no one thought to see if she was ok? No friends thought to wake her to attend class?This sounds like a hot undercover mess-something just ain’t right.
So sad
I recently graduated from VSU last year, and around finals you definitely see students sleeping everywhere on campus from. Especially the common areas of the freshman dorms. It’s not uncommon due to the stress and exhaustion (graduations also takes place in December, so everyone is practically burned out and crashing). It’s unfortunate to hear about a life taken, especially so young. I will be praying for justice & peace for Jasmine and her loved ones.
This is so sad… I agree what kind of school is this that nobody even thought to check on her after she laid there for so long sleep. I pray that police will do all they can to find out exactly what happened to her. My prayers are with the family during this hard time!!! Once all investigations are over the family may want to think about a lawsuit because that type of neglect deserves some compensation….
Some family friend!!!!! You forward death of daughter to them from fakebook instead of calling or if living nearby not going over. I mean ppl post their lives on that garbage but I would never in a million years if I had it comment re: a death for any reason , ESP tell a supposed friend hey your daughter is dead, the phone still has a purpose