In case of a life-threatening emergency, call 911.
If you or someone you know is thinking of suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255 or Crisis Textline: 741741, type “Hello.”
The death of JMU sophomore softball star Lauren Bernett is being investigated as an apparent suicide, Rockingham County authorities said Wednesday.
The passing of Bernett, 20, was announced by the university on Tuesday.
“We are in the process of conducting a death investigation into the incident, and it is currently classified as an apparent suicide,” Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson said in a statement released on Wednesday. “The official report from the Medical Examiner’s Office is pending, and out of respect for her family and friends, there is no other information to release at this time.”
Bernett, a catcher, had just been named the CAA Player of the Week on Monday after a huge weekend in a three-game sweep of Drexel, in which she had recorded seven hits in nine at-bats, including four hits and a homer on Sunday.
She was hitting .336, the third-best mark on the team this season, with nine homers and 33 RBIs for the Dukes, and was a key player in the Dukes’ run to the College World Series last season, when JMU softball was one of the big sports stories of the summer, upsetting top-ranked Oklahoma in the CWS opener.
Bernett, a McDonald, Penn. native, is survived by her parents, two brothers and two sisters.
Story by Chris Graham
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