Every parent’s greatest wish is to send their children off to college, in the hopes that they’ll return to them both educated and in good health. Unfortunately, for the parents of Jasmine Benjamin, that wish turned into a nightmare.

On Nov. 18, Jasmine, a 17-year-old nursing student at Valdosta State University, was found dead in her dorm’s study room. Her parents were hit with a shocking blow in first learning of their daughter’s death from one of her friends Facebook posts, and not the university.

They received another upset after receiving notice that she was reportedly dead for 12 hours before being found because onlookers assumed she was merely ‘sleeping’ on the study room couch.

‘That’s the most disturbing part. What kind of school is this that they know someone’s laying on the couch to go check on them after a certain amount of hours?’ said Jasmine’s stepfather, James Jackson.

The school’s officials claim that they after they learned of her death, which has since been ruled as a homicide, they notified the local sheriff’s department, who then alerted Jasmine’s parents.

Jackson acknowledged the family’s disappointment in hearing her death was pre-meditated, saying, ‘To find out it was a homicide and that somebody actually murdered our daughter changed everything…It was like hearing the news all over again.”

A horribly sad account for all involved. We offer our sincere condolences to Jasmine’s family and friends.

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