Sinedu Tadesse

Sinedu Tadesse murdered her roommate, Trang Ho, and then killed herself on 28 May 1995 whilst she was a junior at Harvard University. The ensuing scandal played out in the courts and Boston newspapers, and may have resulted in a variety of changes to the administration of living conditions at Harvard. Tadesse is buried at the Ethiopian Orthodox Cemetery, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Background
Tadesse had grown up in a relatively well-off family in Ethiopia. However, this period in Ethiopia's history was turbulent. Her father had been jailed for two years when Tadesse was aged about seven. Tadesse devoted herself to her studies, gaining admission to the prestigious International Community School where she graduated a valedictorian and earned admission to Harvard.

Unfortunately, she was unable to keep up academically when she arrived at Harvard. She made no friends, remaining distant even from relatives she had in the area. Tadesse sent a letter to dozens of strangers that she picked from the phone book, describing her unhappiness and pleading with them to be her friend.

For her second and third years she roomed with Vietnamese student Trang Ho. Ho was apparently very popular and Tadesse was obsessively fond of her. She was offputtingly needy in her demands for attention. She apparently reacted with despair when Ho announced her decision to room with another group of girls their senior year. This version of events is debated by Tadesse's family.

The main events
Tadesse had purchased the knife in advance, and the week before the murder, Tadesse had sent a photograph of herself with an anonymous note to The Harvard Crimson, saying "Keep this picture. There will soon be a very juicy story involving this woman."

On 28 May 1995, Sinedu Tadesse stabbed her roommate, Trang Ho, 45 times with a hunting knife and then hanged herself in the bathroom. On the way to the bathroom to commit suicide, she attacked one of Ho's visiting friends, a 26-year-old named Thao Nguyen, injuring her as well.

Afterwards
In the days after the murder, it was speculated on campus and in the press that Tadesse had resorted to violence because Ho had asked not to room with her again in the fall. Members of Tadesse's family countered that she was the one who opted out of rooming with Ho, as she was often alone in the dormitory because Ho often stayed with her family in nearby Medford, Massachusetts.

Trang Ho's family thought Harvard could have prevented her death. In 1998, they filed suit against the school, alleging "wrongful death, conscious pain and suffering and emotional distress," and charging the university, as well as various people in charge at Dunster House with negligence. They felt that the university had plenty of evidence that Tadesse was melting down, and could have prevented the deaths.

After the murder, a debate erupted at Harvard over whether the school should establish a scholarship in the names of both girls or only in Ho's. They decided on the latter, and students can now apply for the Trang Ho Public Service Fellowship to pay for charitable good work during the summer after junior year.

Halfway Heaven
Most analysis of the murder follows the 1997 publication of Halfway Heaven: Diary of a Harvard Murder, a book by 1987 Harvard graduate Melanie Thernstrom. Thernstrom was sympathetic towards Tadesse, and blames the university for what happened.

Thernstom travelled to Tadesse's home in Ethiopia and gained access to her diaries, diaries that reveal her deteriorating mental health, her obsessive fantasizing about an ideal friend, and her troubles obtaining psychiatric care.