21-year-old college student fatally stabbed by roommate, police say
A 21-year-old American student was stabbed to death in Rotterdam, allegedly by her roommate, police confirmed Friday.
According to a police statement, authorities received reports of a quarrel Wednesday at an apartment on Kralingse Kerklaan. When they entered the apartment, police found Sarah Papenheim with stab wounds and attempted to resuscitate her.
Police said those attempts were unsuccessful, and she died of her injuries.
An investigation led authorities to the suspect, Papenheim's 23-year-old roommate, who was arrested at the Eindhoven train station, the police statement said.
The two lived in the apartment with their own rooms but shared a kitchen and bathroom, police said. The suspect has not been named by police.
Papenheim had moved to the Netherlands to study at Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
"Sarah studied psychology and lived in the Netherlands since 2016. Our deepest condolences go out to all Sarah's family and friends at this poignant time. The university is shocked by this terrible incident and is taking care of upset students and employees," a university official said in a statement.
The School of Social and Behavourial Sciences organized a gathering for staff and students Friday.
Papenheim's brother died by suicide a few years ago, her former high school teacher Mitch Bahr told KRCR-TV, and Papenheim was struggling with the loss. She attended Foothill High School near Redding, California.
She was supposed to visit family in America for the holidays, her friend George Moye told WCCO-TV.
"The thing that is going through my head is that she was coming home for Christmas, as we were all so excited to see her and to hear that she was coming back that way, and that was just tragic," Moye said.
Papenheim was an avid musician. She started going to open jam sessions around her hometown of Andover, Minnesota, when she was 15, WCCO reported.
There, she met drummer Jellybean Johnson, who became her mentor.
"I liked her because she hit the drums just as hard as the guys did," Johnson told WCCO. "So I nicknamed her 'Thumper.'"
"It was a real drive for her to want to be a great female drummer," Bahr told KRCR. "Not just be that girl drummer but be an excellent female drummer and she did that very well."