Missing NH college student killed by train in Rome
Feb 22, 2014, 11:29 PM
ROME (AP) – A college student from New Hampshire who was missing for two days in Rome was hit by a train, Italian railway police said Saturday.
While police didn’t release the identity of the student whose body was found in a rail tunnel Thursday, Trinity College Rome Campus officials said Saturday the student was Bates College junior John Durkin. The 21-year-old from Rye, N.H., was in a study abroad program.
“It is with much sadness that the Durkin family informs you of the loss of John Nolen Durkin and thanks everyone for their support during the past few days,” according to a statement from his family posted to a Facebook page that had been set up to help find him.
The community at Bates, where Durkin was a linebacker on the football team, and had been studying economics, also was informed of his death.
“This is obviously a heartbreaking moment for John’s family and I want to extend our own sense of deep loss and sorrow to his family and many friends,” said Bates spokesman Jay Burns. “This is also deeply painful to the Bates College community.”
Durkin had last been seen around 2:30 a.m. Thursday in Campo de’ Fiori, a historic square lined with pubs popular with students. Police said someone aboard a passing train spotted the body a few hours later in the tunnel running under a large park between stations near the Vatican and the Trastevere neighborhood.
Railway police said the case was under investigation and could give no other details.
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