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Jackson State Campus Mourns Death of Student Who Was Missing For Weeks

The body of Jackson State University student Latasha Norman was found in a wooded area about 10 miles from the campus, near Tougaloo College, on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 29, authorities reported.

According to police reports, officers located the body after obtaining information from Stanley Cole, 24, Norman’s ex-boyfriend, who was questioned by police earlier in the day.

Classes on Friday, Nov. 30, at Jackson State were canceled in observance in Norman’s memory, and a memorial service was scheduled for noon Monday, Dec. 3, in the Rose Embly McCoy Auditorium on the main campus.

Norman, who was 20, had been missing since Nov. 13. She was last seen on JSU’s campus after a business management class. The professor who taught that class, Dr. Joann White, praised Norman as a top student and “an independent thinker. She seemed to have had her head on straight and she knew what she wanted out of life.”

Cole has been arrested and charged with Norman’s murder. He is being held in jail without bond.

Ambriel Woods, 22, a senior accounting major at Jackson State University, had recently been roommates with Norman on a service trip with the Jackson State University Accounting Society, for which Woods serves as president. Norman was the Student Government Association Representative for the organization. Woods helped to organize the Latasha Norman Family Relief Fund along with the JSU College of Business and the JSU Alumni Association.

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