An 18-year-old college student was brutally beaten and stabbed to death at a park in New York sparking a police manhunt for her killers.
Tessa Majors, a first year student at Barnard College, died in an apparent mugging at Morningside Park in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Police say she was approached by a group of up to four men after she descended a flight of stairs in the park at around 5:30 p.m.
Preliminary reports suggest Tessa was stabbed several times in the face, neck, and under her arm after she resisted her attackers.
Tessa managed to stagger back up the steps to a nearby college security booth where she collapsed, reports the New York Post .
A guard found her slumped on the ground and summoned for urgent help.
Paramedics then rushed the victim to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital where she later died from her injuries.
Detectives were reportedly able to identify the victim as her mobile phone was left at the scene.
A butterfly knife, believed to be the murder weapon, was found nearby.
NYPD officers are still combing the scene for clues but no arrests have yet been made.
Witnesses reportedly told police that several people - possibly teenagers- were seen fleeing the scene.
The student's parents have been informed of their daughter's death and have travelled to New York to assist detectives.
Barnard President Sian Beilock sent a statement to the student body expressing her sadness at the student's death.
“Tessa was just beginning her journey at Barnard and in life. We mourn this devastating murder of an extraordinary young woman and member of our community,' Beilock wrote.
"This is an unthinkable tragedy that has shaken us to our core. Please know that we are all grieving together and I am thinking of you as we process this awful news as a community."
