California Murder-Suicide Case Closed

The West Los Angeles Police Department has closed its investigation into the deaths of former Harvard undergraduates Chinua O. Sanyika '93 and Anthea M. Williams '93, ruling the incident a murder-suicide.

Police said Sanyika, a first-year medical student at Stanford University, apparently shot and killed Williams in her Los Angeles home before killing himself on Jan. 13.

Police Detective Detron Phillips revealed on Jan. 19 that Sanyika left a suicide note and suggested that the murder-suicide was prompted by a love triangle, according to an article in The Stanford Daily.

Police have said that further investigation revealed no new evidence.

Detective Gail Russell said in an interview yesterday that "a motive has never been determined," adding that the case was "an open and shut one."

Friends of the two Harvard graduates said they remain bewildered by the murder-suicide.

In an editorial published in The Crimson on Jan. 31, Nana Twum-Danso '94 wrote, "The events that have happened are just so inconsistent with the people we knew. That's what makes it so painful and confusing."

Twum-Danso said yesterday she was aware of the closed status of the case at the time she wrote her opinion piece.

Leticia Arias '93-'94, who collaborated with Twam-Danso on the editorial, wrote that she too was bewildered by the case.

"Anthea was a close friend and a roommate and Chinua was also a dear friend," she wrote. "I cannot doubt the goodness I saw in Chinua."