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BOONE, N.C. (AP) — Identification cards found near a dead body belonged to an Appalachian State University student missing for more than a week, police said Saturday.
A North Carolina driver's license and an Appalachian State student identification card belonging to Anna Marie Smith were found at the off-campus scene, Boone police said. Police said that officers found the human remains Saturday morning in a wooded area at the west end of the town.
Authorities, family and friends have been looking for the 18-year-old student from High Point since she left her college dorm and disappeared on Sept. 3.
The body will be taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem for an autopsy, police said.
The Charlotte Observer reported (http://bit.ly/1q1PFwP ) Smith had left her cell phone and laptop at her parents' home after a visit to discuss a troubling experience in late August.
Smith reported being assaulted after going out with friends but had only a foggy memory of what had happened to her, said the Rev. Dana McKim, a family spokesman.
Campus Police Chief Gunther Doerr said investigators looked into Smith's description at the beginning of their investigation into her disappearance. They learned Smith had attended an off-campus gathering of about a half-dozen students, but there was no evidence of a sexual attack, Doerr said.
Authorities did establish that something had left Smith in an "anguished" state, Doerr said. He declined to be more specific.
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Information from: The Charlotte Observer, http://www.charlotteobserver.com
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