Police Investigate 2 Student Deaths In Ithaca

ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) -- Tompkins County Sheriff Ken Lansing says alcohol consumption appears to have played a part in the unrelated deaths of a male student at a Cornell University fraternity house and a female student found dead in the snow near the Ithaca College campus.

Cornell University released a statement saying 19-year-old George Desdunes, a sophomore from Brooklyn, was found unconscious on a couch at his fraternity house Friday morning and was taken to the hospital, where he later died. Autopsy results were still pending on Sunday.

The sheriff's office says an Ithaca College freshman, 17-year-old Victoria Cheng of Spencer, was found dead in the snow behind a house near her college campus Saturday afternoon.

Both deaths remain under investigation but Lansing says they appear to have been accidental.

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