BRISTOL, Va. – Police have found the body of a Virginia Intermont College student, who had been reported missing since Thursday of last week.
The body of Yasmeen “Yassi” Qutub, 18, a freshman student at VI, was discovered Wednesday morning in a wooded area behind the Food City on Euclid Avenue, which is located approximately a mile from the campus.
Thursday at about 9 p.m., Yassi Qutub, had told her sister she was going for a walk to calm down after getting into a quarrel with a friend in their dormitory, Lt. Jerry Barlow, of the Bristol Police Department, said Tuesday.
Police and family members declined to discuss the subject of the quarrel, but Barlow described it as “nothing heated,” adding that it was not believed to be related to Qutub’s disappearance.
Most baffling to her family and the local community was that Qutub, a native of Hoffman Estates near Chicago, had not contacted her family, especially her identical twin sister, Ahila, who is her college roommate and constant companion.
Also, she had not taken any money or personal belongings with her when she left for her walk.
“We’ve never been away from each other without knowing where the other was for more than an hour,” Ahila Qutub said Tuesday.
“Even if she had a fight and was mad at everyone else, she would have called me,” she said.
Horse enthusiasts, the twins enrolled in the college’s equine studies program, the school’s most popular major among its 834 students.
VI students have been involved in the search for Yassi Qutub since she was reported missing. They posted fliers bearing her picture throughout Bristol Virginia and also distributed them door-to-door in neighborhoods near the college.
Classes at Virginia Intermont were canceled for the day Wednesday following the an-nouncement that a body was discovered, college spokeswoman Laura Mondul said.
The college held a schoolwide assembly for campus and community support on Wednesday afternoon. All students and faculty are concerned for the family.
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