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Police say a 13-year-old boy has confessed in brutal stabbing murder of Barnard College student Tessa Majors
Image Source: Instagram

Police say a 13-year-old boy has confessed in brutal stabbing murder of Barnard College student Tessa Majors

Cops are looking for two others

A 13-year-old boy has confessed to stabbing Tessa Majors, an 18-year-old student at Barnard College in Manhattan, sources told WLNY-TV Friday.

The teenage boy reportedly told investigators that he and two other attempted to rob Majors before stabbing her to death. Police are now looking for the two others involved in the incident.

According to the report, police found the 13-year-old while canvassing areas around Morningside Park, the location where the murder occurred Wednesday evening.

Police caught the boy in the lobby of a building at Manhattan Avenue and 119th Street Thursday in the late afternoon. He was wearing clothes that matched the description of the suspect, sources said.

Police arrested him for trespassing and found a knife on his person during a search. When he was brought in for questioning on trespassing and weapons charges, authorities said he then confessed to the murder.

Investigators who have reviewed the surveillance video say Majors was attacked while coming down the steps of Morningside Park. After being stabbed underneath her arm, the knife piercing her heart, she was able to stagger back up the stairs to the park's security booth where a guard saw Majors and called 911.

Majors was then rushed to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Students at Barnard College are still in shock

Barnard College is a small private women's liberal arts college located in Manhattan, New York City, that is affiliated with Columbia University.

"I was devastated. First, like, knowing it was someone on my floor. That was hard enough. Then knowing it was someone I had actually seen and knew," a first-year student named Julia told WLNY-TV.

"The whole campus is at a loss and it's been silent all day," another student said.

Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Julia Papas, a 20-year-old junior at Barnard, said that when she was alerted about a possible robbery Wednesday night, "the last thing I thought was that it could be a Barnard student."

"It's hard as a student because I think we're all feeling like it could have been any of us," Papas said. "She was one of ours, and to lose such a young student is numbing to the whole community."

The family says their 'hearts will never be the same'

Tessa Majors is remembered as a "very special, very talented, and very well-loved young woman."

She was a musician who had recently played her first show in New York City since moving from Virginia to attend Barnard College. "Safe to say the first NYC show went well," she proudly posted on Instagram just two months ago.

Majors' brother and band-mate, Maxwell, posted a heartfelt tribute on Instagram, saying, "rest in peace to the best sister and friend someone could ask for."

Majors was also interested in journalism and had worked as a reporter for a local paper in Virginia.

"Tess shone bright in this world, and our hearts will never be the same," Majors' family said in a brief statement Thursday.

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