College Student Found Lying On Road After House Party Dies

A college student who was found lying on a road after attending a house party has died and a homicide investigation has been launched in relation to her death.

Mia Kanu, 23, a veterinary student at Tennessee State University, was found on Providence Drive in her hometown of Southfield, Michigan, during the early morning hours of June 3, the Detroit Free Press reports. Officers responded to the area at around 4:32 a.m. after receiving reports of a body being spotted in front of the Coach House Apartments, which was later identified as Kanu.

Surveillance footage obtained by FOX 2 Detroit showed Kanu either falling from or being pushed out of a vehicle at the apartment complex prior to being found. Kanu's mother, Bianca Vanmeter, said she last saw her daughter leave for work on the morning of June 2 and confirmed that she attended a house party with friends in the evening. Vanmeter said her daughter was picked up in Berkley by a friend who she had been staying with in the vehicle spotted on the surveillance footage, which has not been released publicly by police.

"Something happened and somebody knows something, and we just want those answers," Vanmeter told FOX 2 Detroit. "She would never just leave a person. It doesn’t make sense."

The 23-year-old was reported to have experienced severe head trauma and rushed to Ascension Providence Hospital, where she was placed on life support for two days before initially being pronounced dead on June 5, though later put back on life support until June 8 as the hospital held a walk of life for her because she was an organ donor.

“There was no brain activity,” Vanmeter told the Free Press. “Her liver went to a baby, her kidneys went to a recipient and her tissues and muscles were donated to the Gift of Life. ... She just looked like a beautiful angel laying in bed."

Southfield Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Jared Womble told the Free Press that the driver of the vehicle is cooperating with the investigation.

“Anytime that there is an unnatural death, and especially concerning a young person, it is looked at as a homicide,” Womble said.