MIT Grad Student Found Dead: Kaitlin Goldstein’s Body Found In Indian Ravine

A missing MIT grad student was found dead in a ravine in India on Saturday. Kaitlin Goldstein, who went by the nickname Kate, had gone to India for a workshop. After just a week there, she disappeared. A full search ensued, but the outcome was not what the family had hoped for in the end.

According to a report from the Washington Post, Kate Goldstein’s body was found below a trail where she had gone running nearly a week earlier. The MIT grad student had headed out early in the morning on June 14 to go for a run and she never returned. Now it is believed that she had slipped on some rocks while running and fell to her death off a cliff.

Many had been looking for Goldstein in the days after she disappeared, and her parents flew to the area to help in the search. They had the help of the local police, the American embassy, the FBI, the U.S. State Department, and the Intelligence Bureau of India, but unfortunately there was a heartbreaking outcome.

Goldstein, 28, was working on a doctorate in architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kate had planned to attend the workshop in India and then stay to help a Buddhist monastery put up some solar panels. Reports indicate that she was passionate about helping developing countries find energy solutions.

During the initial days that Kate Goldstein was missing, her brother Adam feared that someone else may have been involved in her disappearance, according to WPRI. He worried that she may have been kidnapped or run into a violent situation as some others have experienced in India over recent times. He also pondered whether she may have just “wanted to get off the grid for a while and be by herself.” While it appears that all possibilities were explored as the search continued for the missing MIT grad student, ultimately it was apparently a simple accident that took her from her family, friends and fellow graduate students.

Kaitlin Goldstein was originally from Rhode Island and she received her undergraduate degree from Brown University. After her 2008 engineering degree she went on to obtain a master’s degree from the University of Texas in architectural engineering. MIT President L. Rafael Reif sent an email to students after the MIT grad student was found dead noting that the “death of someone so young and promising is a terrible loss; we should all take the time to reach out to those around us.”

[Image via CBS News]