LAWRENCE, Mass. — The death of a 16-year-old Wellesley girl who wandered away from an all-night drinking party in Andover last February was ruled a suicide, prosecutors revealed in District Court yesterday.
Elizabeth Mun, a student at prestigious Concord Academy, was found facedown in Hussey Brook Pond the morning of Feb. 15. The spot was 100 yards from her classmate Zachary Zimmerman's 58 Williams St. home.
The suicide revelation came to light yesterday as Zimmerman, 19, and another classmate, Morgan Ingari, 18, of Winchester were arraigned in Lawrence District Court on charges that they supplied alcohol to Mun and other partygoers.
"She was upset," Essex Assistant District Attorney Jessica Connors said in court. "She was not dressed, if you will, for the frigid night. ... The medical examiner's office ruled that the cause of death was drowning and that the manner was suicide.
"The ME further ruled that her consumption of alcohol was not a contributory factor to her death," Connors said.
Steve O'Connell, spokesman for District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, would not offer any details yesterday as to how examiners came to the conclusion of suicide. All evidence found had remained under seal at Lawrence District Court until yesterday.
Police allege Zimmerman drove Ingari to a liquor store to buy alcohol with a fake driver's license. Partygoers at Zimmerman's home had taken up a collection for the booze.
When police searched Zimmerman's home, they found two empty 30-pack cases of Coors Light beer, three bottles of Smirnoff Vodka, a bottle of Jagermeister alcohol, a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila, a bottle of Lindemans Chardonnay and several beer cans and bottles.
There also were six marijuana smoking pipes, a grinder and a leather sunglass container holding the drug.
Zimmerman pleaded not guilty to furnishing alcohol to minors. He faces up to a year in jail or a $2,000 fine on the charge if found guilty.
Ingari admitted to sufficient facts in the case just minutes after her arraignment. Her case was continued without a finding for two years and she was placed on probation.
Ingari must complete 50 hours of community service and attend a half-day Brains at Risk program, which links the choices made behind the wheel to the devastating effects of traumatic brain injury.
Judge David Cunis ordered her to stay away from alcohol. She also faces random drug screenings.
"I know it's going to be difficult on your way to college," Cunis said.
Ingari's attorney, Robert Delahunt, said yesterday that his client was saddened by what happened but emphasized that she had nothing to do with Mun's death.
"The court proceedings were self-explanatory. It had nothing to do with alcohol," Delahunt said after the arraignment. "The one doesn't go with the other."
Police said Mun strayed from the party around 5 a.m., and made a final call on her cell phone at 5:27 a.m. They did not indicate who Mun called or who called her. Her boyfriend called 911 and reported her missing from the party at 6:50 a.m.
Police tracked her using her cell phone signal and found her unresponsive at 10:46 a.m. She was brought to Lawrence General Hospital and was later transferred to Children's Hospital, where she died that evening.
At the time of her death, family and friends remembered Mun as an "independent thinker with a finely tuned sense of humor." Mun's family said she enjoyed traveling with her family and had varied interests, including field hockey, lacrosse, golf, figure skating and photography. Mun hoped to follow in her mother's footsteps and attend Brown University.
But a poem she had published last year in Teen Voices magazine, "The Beach," showed a different side of Mun.
One line reads: "She waited for that moment while drowning in her sorrows. That she could let it all go in just one breath. Now she is gone, an accident so dreary."
Mun was the daughter of Edward Mun, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and Sue Lee, an orthodontist in Framingham.
A grand jury in Salem Superior Court also had considered whether felony charges should be brought in Mun's death back in March. But prosecutors said yesterday because there was no connection between the drinking and the death, there would be no further charges brought against the teenagers. Zimmerman's mother, Laurie, who was not home at the time of the party, also has not been charged.
Zimmerman's attorney, John Valerio, did not return a call for comment.
Delahunt described the situation yesterday as good kids making a bad decision.
"She's terribly distraught with what happened," Delahunt said of Ingari.
Delahunt described Ingari as a "civic-minded, superstar student." She was suspended from school for the drinking party incident.
She will be a freshman at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in the fall to study film. She traveled to Biloxi, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina for eight days to provide relief. She served as a camp counselor to young girls at a camp in Northern Maine over the summer.
Ingari brought a book with her into the courtroom and appeared to be three-quarters through as she read while waiting for her attorney — Jane Austen's classic "Sense and Sensibility."
