Fanshawe College is mourning the death of a 19-year-old student whose body was found on a Southwestern Ontario beach exactly one month after she was reported missing.
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Police began searching for Nidhua Muktadir, a second-year nursing student, on Dec. 4, one day after she was last seen alive on Hawk Cliff Road, roughly five kilometers northeast of Port Stanley. A large search ended on Jan. 4, last Saturday, when her body was found on Waneeta Beach in the Lake Erie village of Port Bruce.
“Fanshawe is deeply saddened to learn and share news of Nidhua’s passing. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nidhua’s family as well as her friends, classmates and faculty during this difficult time,” school officials said in a statement on Thursday.
Ontario Provincial Police on Tuesday identified the body found on the beach as a 19-year-old missing from London but did not name the individual. Her brother, Abraham Muktadir, confirmed to The Free Press in an interview that it was her.
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“All I can say is that she was very strong and brave – always has been, and that’s how I would remember her,” he said.
Police said they do not suspect foul play.
Jennifer Peer is a nursing professor at Fanshawe College. She called Muktadir a “kind, compassionate individual who touched the lives of many” at the London school.
“This loss is deeply felt, and our hearts go out to her family, friends, and all who knew and cared for her,” Peer said in a statement.
The Fanshawe flag will be lowered to half-mast in Muktadir’s memory on the date of her memorial, but arrangements have not been released by the family yet, school officials said. “We want to thank the many people who took a moment to share our December message in an attempt to find Nidhua safe.”
Grief counseling is being offered to students and employees, school officials said.
Mukdatir’s mother, Samina Nasrin Chowdhury, has previously told The Free Press she moved to Canada from Bangladesh in 2010when her daughter was nine years old.
The mother, who lives in Toronto, said Mukdatir was living with roommates in a dorm at Fanshawe College.
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