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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — What she called a place of peace became a place of death for a 22-year-old former BYU student found stabbed to death Wednesday at a park in Anchorage.
Police say they were called at 1:30 a.m. when friends and family found Brittni Giliam's body after they became concerned because she was gone longer than expected.
She was found in Helen Louise McDowell Sanctuary, a little-known park in the Midtown area of Anchorage, apparently not far from where Giliam was staying with friends, said her uncle, Jason Cardon.
Giliam suffered at least one stab wound to the torso, said Anchorage Police Lt. Dave Parker.
Police have not ruled out suicide, but homicide detectives are investigating the case, Parker said. Officials have not indicated what evidence was found at the scene pending an autopsy.
Cardon said family members told him that Giliam went out for a routine walk in the park on Tuesday and never returned.
Giliam wrote about the park on Monday night, just a day before her death, in a blog post called "the circle of life."
"Every day, on my bike ride home from work," she wrote, "I stop at a bird sanctuary down the street from my house. It's a place where I unwind, reflect and seek for peace."
Giliam was the second of nine children, and Cardon said she would be missed.
"By all standards, Brittni was a tremendous human being," he said. "She was intelligent and loved adventures and people. She held a deep reverence for nature and all of God's creations."
Records indicate Giliam studied nursing at BYU from 2005 to 2009, said university spokesman Joe Hadfield.
This story was reported from Salt Lake City.
E-mail: jsmith@desnews.com
