Rare News Desk
12:50 p.m. update: police have identified the murder suspect as 17-year-old homeless man Meechiael Khalil Criner. The police said they are “very certain” Criner is responsible for Haruka Weiser’s murder.
Videos by Rare
Friday 10 a.m. update: A 17-year-old male has been arrested is in connection with the homicide of Haruka Weiser. Police intend to pursue charges Friday, after which we will learn his identity.
Thursday 3 p.m. update: University of Texas staff and students will hold a vigil Thursday afternoon in honor of Haruka J. Weiser, the 18-year-old dance major who was identified as the homicide victim found at Waller Creek two days ago.
The vigil will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the university’s East Mall in front of the Liberal Arts Builing, near the Winship Drama Building, where Weiser was last seen Sunday night.
According to the vigil’s Facebook event page, more than 800 people havesaid they would attend. UT President Greg L. Fenves is expected to speak at the gathering, and faculty with the university’s College of Fine Arts will give prepared remarks, organizers said.
1:30 p.m. update: Austin police investigators want the public’s help in identifying a person of interest seen in video footage taken near where a UT freshman was found dead on campus earlier this week.
Haruka J. Weiser, an 18-year-old dance major, was identified by authorities on Thursday as the woman found in Waller Creek on Tuesday near the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center.
A video shown by police at a news conference Thursday shows a man walking a woman’s bicycle along San Jacinto Boulevard around 11 p.m.
Police also announced a $15,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the homicide investigation.
According to Assistant Police Chief Troy Gay, Weiser was last seen Sunday night around 9:30 p.m. leaving the Winship Drama Building. She had communicated with one of her friends as she traveled toward her dorm, Gay said, but she never arrived. A roommate called the UT Police Department on Monday and reported her missing at 11:30 a.m., Gay said.
UT police tried to find her through their “normal protocol” of talking to friends, acquaintances and family before finding her remains in Waller Creek on Tuesday around 10:30 a.m.
UT police called for assistance from Austin police and the Texas Department of Public Safety, and “everyone stood tall and wanted to help,” Gay said.
“We know that the public will step up as they do in every case” and help find this person of interest, he said.
UT President Gregory L. Fenves expressed his condolences to Weiser’s family and said that “as a parent, this is my worst nightmare.”
He said his administration would get help from DPS to undertake a review of security across the campus, which hosts 50,000 students. “I am prepared to take concrete steps to implement the DPS review,” he said.
“As students you expect to be safe,” Fenves said. “The attack on Haruka is an attack on our entire family.”
11:35 a.m. update: Officials have identified the woman found in Waller Creek on the University of Texas campus on Tuesday as 18-year-old UT freshman Haruka J. Weiser, the American-Statesman confirmed.
Weiser’s family met with university officials and law enforcement authorities Thursday and confirmed her death, a source close to the investigation said.
[protected-iframe id=”ee3c836e3529015f0bc66d6219036af6-46934866-50986348″ info=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” class=”twitter-tweet” height=450]
A news conference is planned for 1 p.m., when officials may provide more details on the case.
Weiser had recently left Portland and moved to Austin to start fall classes at UT on a dance scholarship, said a family member who wished to remain private. She focused primarily on ballet but did have extensive training in many forms.
“My favorite styles of dance are ballet and hip-hop,” she wrote in 2015 in a Q&A for her Portland dance school’s Facebook page, just before graduating high school. “I love the precision and grace of ballet, but at the same time, I enjoy the freedom and challenges I find in hip-hop.”
[protected-iframe id=”7092b14992a31d38efbfe08474517fef-46934866-50986348″ info=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” class=”twitter-tweet” height=450]
Weiser said she had been “dancing in my living room for as long as I can remember.”
In 2014, Weiser was quoted in her hometown newspaper about an upcoming ballet show.
“It really is a rush. There really is nothing like it,” Weiser said of performing.
Weiser also had hopes of possibly becoming a doctor, or going into a similar medical or scientific field, the family member said.
The last time her immediate family members, who live in Portland, saw her was in Mexico over spring break, the family member said.
Weiser’s body was found between the Winship Drama Building and her listed address in the 300 block of East 21st Street according to the UT directory, which is just a third of a mile. Her classmates said the Waller Creek trail was the route she would take home.
UT police got a report of a missing person on Monday morning, though police would not confirm publicly at the time whether that person was Weiser.
Missing person reports at UT are “quite common,” said Cindy Posey, UT police spokeswoman.
“We have 50,000 students,” Posey said. “A lot of those times, it turns out that they [the missing person] were just sleeping at a friend’s house.”
UT President Gregory L. Fenves released the following statement:
“With great sadness, I have just learned from the Austin Police Department that Haruka Weiser, a first-year Theatre and Dance student, has been tentatively identified as the victim of this week’s homicide on campus. Austin Police Department Victim Services counselors spoke this morning with her parents and my heart goes out to them. Her death is a tragic loss for the UT community.
“Haruka was a beloved member of our dance community, liked and admired by her classmates and respected by professors for her intelligence and spirit. Dance faculty members first met Haruka more than two years ago when she performed at the National High School Dance Festival. They immediately began recruiting her to come to UT from her home in Portland, Oregon. Our community was made better by her decision to join the College of Fine Arts.
“Trained in ballet, Haruka excelled in all her performance endeavors. She was also involved in Dance Action, a student-run organization for dancers, and performed in the fall Dance Action concert.
“UTPD first learned that Haruka was missing on Monday morning and immediately began a search. As I reported in my message to campus yesterday, Austin police are leading the homicide investigation into this horrifying and incomprehensible crime and working with UTPD and other law enforcement agencies to locate and apprehend a suspect quickly.
“The unthinkable brutality against Haruka is an attack on our entire family. Law enforcement is fully engaged to do everything to bring the perpetrator who committed this crime to justice.
“I ask you to join me in expressing our deepest condolences to Haruka’s parents, family, classmates and friends and to help the university honor her life.”
Earlier: On Thursday, the University of Texas community is still waiting for police investigators and university officials to identify the woman found dead on campus Tuesday and say how she might have been killed.
“I wish we had more information to share at this time about the tragedy on campus this week,” said UT President Gregory L. Fenves. “Law enforcement agencies are actively engaged in the investigation but cannot yet release details that would compromise their efforts.”
As of Wednesday, the Austin Police Department is heading the case, which they are calling a homicide investigation. Police released a statement Wednesday that their “main focus at this time is to identify, locate and arrest the individual that committed this crime.”
At 10:46 a.m. Tuesday, UT police responded to reports of a deceased person in Waller Creek on campus west of the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center. Officials have said the woman was in her 20s but have not answered whether she was a UT student.
The Travis County medical examiner’s office hasn’t yet determined the cause of death, but officials say the body appears to show “indications of criminality.”
The case is UT’s first on-campus homicide investigation since Charles Whitman gunned down 14 people nearly 50 years ago from the UT Tower in August 1966.
The most recent homicide on university property in which UT police investigated occurred off campus, in a married student housing complex on Sixth Street, in 1996. A 41-year-old UT student, George Michael Wilson, killed himself after shooting his wife and 4-year-old daughter.
UT police statistics show that violent crime is rare on campus, while property crime is more prevalent. For instance, there were three assaults reported on campus compared with 30 thefts last year.
