Police are investigating the death of a 21-year-old female Penn student whose body was found in a three-story student boarding house near 40th and Sansom.
Police say roommates discovered the woman on Sunday night, at around 11:30 p.m., in her bedroom and attempted CPR. When police arrived they observed a blood spatter on the wall next to the woman, according to a police report.
An empty pill bottle was found on a nearby table for 60 pills prescribed to the woman about two weeks ago for treatment of depression, according to the report. There were also two notes on her desk, one addressed to her family and one to her mental health doctor at Penn. The letters appeared to be suicide notes, according to police. The woman’s roommates told police that they heard her screaming and heard banging sounds coming from her room earlier Sunday.
Police said they are treating the death as suspicious and the investigation is continuing.
September 29th, 2014 at 12:02 pm
The remarks made in this article were highly inappropriate. The details should be kept in disclosure for the sake of the privacy of her friends and family. I am extremely disgusted by the lack of sensitivity this article has. Suicide is a very sensitive topic and there is definitely a more appropriate way to approach this. My prayers go out to her friends and family.
September 29th, 2014 at 12:16 pm
what Amanda said, above.
September 29th, 2014 at 12:21 pm
I was just thinking the same thing, Amanda! The first two sentences would have been more than sufficient to describe what happened. If you feel you need to provide more info, say she left a note, but that the police are treating the death as suspicious. 3-4 sentence article. Done.
September 29th, 2014 at 12:36 pm
Have to agree with the others here. There are way too many details that don’t need to be disclosed if this is an ongoing investigation involving what police seem to consider a “suspicious” death.
September 29th, 2014 at 12:53 pm
Agree completely. The details in this article are disrespectful to Amanda, her family and her friends. Thinking of them all during this tragic and most difficult time.
September 29th, 2014 at 1:11 pm
Very sad news. And highly distasteful “reporting” WPL. Shame on you.
September 29th, 2014 at 1:15 pm
Seriously WPL? Go take a journalism class before you start typing again.
September 29th, 2014 at 1:27 pm
WPL staff should be ashamed of themselves. This was much more tastefully handled in the Daily Pennsylvanian. (http://www.thedp.com/article/2014/09/police-investigating-death-4000-block-sansom)
September 29th, 2014 at 1:28 pm
As a friend of the deceased I have contacted the police regarding the publication of information on an in progress investigation. I would urge others to do the same. This is not how I would like to remember my friend.
September 29th, 2014 at 1:31 pm
We apologize for what may seem like a shortsighted, attention grabbing details included in the original report. We removed some of that. We debated for a long time about what to include. We chose not to include some details, including the mention of a close acquaintance mentioned in the police report, that lead police to believe the death was suspicious. There was commotion in Ms. Hu’s room before she was found, according to police. Again, we apologize if the reporting offended anyone, but felt it was necessary to convey the gravity of the police report.
We would also like to send our condolences to Ms. Hu’s family and friends.
September 29th, 2014 at 1:55 pm
I would be suing west philly local if they ever posted an article regarding a family member in such detail. There are celebrity deaths where we don’t get this much detail. You should delete this.
September 29th, 2014 at 2:24 pm
“We chose not to include some details, including the mention of a close acquaintance mentioned in the police report, that lead police to believe the death was suspicious.”
… and now that detail’s out there, too.
September 29th, 2014 at 4:58 pm
At first I thought everyone was overreacting but this article is extremely inappropriate. Those are details that do not need to be disclosed until the investigation is complete (if ever). This is horrible journalism and in extremely poor taste. If I was a family member or knew her, I would be disgusted with this article and with the author.
September 29th, 2014 at 6:14 pm
Shame on West Philly Local. I can not believe you posted the name of a suicide victim publicly. This is an appalling lack of respect for our neighbors.
This is not journalism. Journalism serves the public by providing information that enables us to make decisions as a community. Real journalists are bound by a code of ethics to question the worth and relevance of the information they print. That standard is not reached in a post like this, about a young girl’s private life. Journalists do not simply not air the intimate details of a private citizen’s life, for what? To get some traffic so you can sell ads for restaurants?
What details are off-limits to publication by West Philly Local? Are you going to publish the health issues of people who pass away in their homes? Are you going to publish marital problems of our neighbors? Or how much some in the neighborhood pay in child support? Or who has lost a job? Or what medications we take? Are you going to publish who has dirty photos on their phone? Tell us, what private details are out of bounds for WPL?
This a low, disgusting moment for West Philly Local. I hope when (if) the editors reflect on this someday, they realize how embarrassed they should be.
September 29th, 2014 at 6:14 pm
Truly awful coverage. Even the DP had more sense than to share those details.
Have some compassion.
September 29th, 2014 at 6:18 pm
TMI, horrible “reporting”
September 29th, 2014 at 7:00 pm
This was an extremely distasteful and insensitive article. At best, it was tactless and sensationalist. Do you really think Amanda’s family and friends needed to see those horrible details published while they were only just processing what happened? Shame on you, WPL!
September 29th, 2014 at 8:44 pm
It was horrific to read the original article that came out with many on the scene details of Amanda’s death. I only hope and pray Amanda’s family did not read the article earlier today. Later responding in the comments, the WPL staff then releases even more death scene details they held back originally?!? What is going on at WPL? Who is in charge over there and how could they let this happen? Completely inexcusable and just disgusting.
September 29th, 2014 at 9:48 pm
Again, we apologize to readers who were offended by this story. The details of this woman’s death were sent to us by the police department, who are investigating it as a homicide. We withheld many of the details associated with the case because they were too graphic.
Many of those details are included in a Philadelphia Inquirer story on Ms. Hu’s tragic death. The link to that story is here (warning: some of the details are unsettling): http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20140930_Police_investigating_Penn_student_s_death.html.
We do not typically report suicides for obvious reasons, but again this case is being investigated as a homicide. That investigation may rule out homicide, but we felt an obligation to report what the police were investigating.
Mike Lyons – editor