MYSTERIOUS DEATH
College student found dead in Mercer County Park, officials don’t suspect foul play >>
HAMILTON » Township Police investigated a body found in Mercer County Park on Wednesday afternoon near the Hughes Drive entrance.
Sources say a park worker found the woman about 1 p.m. in a snow-covered grassy clearing near some trees.
Police vehicles surrounded her body and officers processed the scene.
Cops identified the woman late Wednesday night as Lillian Alford, 20, of Hamilton. Lt. Michael Kelvy wrote in a news release there was no indication of foul play as investigators await the results of an autopsy by the Middlesex coroner.
Kelvy told The Trentonian the county Homicide Task Force responded to the scene as is custom practice but the investigation was not turned over to it because the death didn’t appear suspicious.
Alford had not been reported missing, Kelvy said, but he wouldn’t comment on why they believe she turned up dead in the park.
According to a Facebook post last week by Marywood University in Scranton, Pa., Alford was a student there and she was slated to graduate next year. Alford graduated from Hopewell Valley Central High School and was a member of the school’s track and field team.
As the macabre scene played out on Wednesday, passers-by stopped to ask officials what was going on.
One woman asked, “Is there a body?” She was told by officials to keep moving along. At one point, cops intentionally positioned a police cruiser in front of woman’s body to block the public’s view as they worked to clear the scene. The woman appeared to be laying on her back with her feet pointing up.
About a half-dozen police vehicles were on the scene as of 2 p.m. as officers collected evidence.
Mercer County spokeswoman Julie Willmot said the county was “aware that a body has been found on the edge of the park” but declined further comment.
Alford is the second woman found dead in a public place since September. Authorities also discovered Lillian Duran’s body wrapped in plastic bags on a Trenton street last year. Duran’s family believes she was murdered, although an autopsy was inconclusive and the circumstances that led to her death remains a mystery.
Those with information about Alford’s death are asked to contact Hamilton Police Detective Leonard Gadsby at 609-581-4032 or the Hamilton Police Crime Tip Hotline at 609-5814008.