The call to police was for cardiac arrest. But the strangulation and trauma wounds on the 18-year-old woman suggested something far more violent happened.
Karlie Hall was found in her dorm room Sunday morning at Millersville University, about an hour west of Philadelphia, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office said.
Her boyfriend, 19-year-old Gregorio Orrostieta, called 911 around 5:20 a.m., prosecutor Craig Stedman said.
“We didn’t know we had a crime at first,” Stedman told CNN. But the prosecutor said Orrostieta later told authorities the couple had a fight.
An autopsy Monday revealed Hall suffered trauma and strangulation wounds.
Orrostieta has been charged with criminal homicide. He is being held without bail.
Stedman said the couple started dating 11 months ago, when she was in high school. Orrostieta is not a student at Millersville University.
About three hours before Orrostieta called 911, a residential assistant heard a struggle and knocked on Hall’s dorm room door, Stedman said. But no one answered the door, and the residential assistant went back to bed.
“Our university community has suffered an unfathomable loss,” Millersville University President John Anderson wrote. He said counselors will be available throughout the week.
