News

Woman dies in apartment on Langdon

A 20-year-old girl died at her Langdon Street apartment Tuesday morning, marking the first lethal case in a month-long series of distressing events near campus.

Madison Police Department Public Information Officer Mike Hanson said the department launched an investigation after attending to the “pulseless” woman, Sarah Stellner, on the second floor of the apartment building at 211 Langdon St.

The woman was not breathing when the police found her around 9 a.m., Hanson said. He added he did not suspect any foul play and could not release further information.

A neighbor who requested to remain anonymous said an officer told her the girl had a pulse when they arrived at Stellner’s apartment.

“All the news [reports are] saying she was dead when the police got there, but I am under the impression she might’ve had a slight pulse,” she said.

The neighbor said she suspects Stellner went out Monday night.

She added the deceased girl’s two roommates had called the police a few weeks ago about a drug-related incident.

Although police have not released a suspected cause of death, several students on the scene mentioned they heard officers say Stellner died of drug-related causes. UW senior Joel Sternbach was among them.

“There was a detective walking out of a car toward the house, and I asked him what the death was about,” Sternbach said. “He said homicide wasn’t called and they were still investigating, and that it was a drug-related incident.”

Brent Atherton, a University of Wisconsin senior, was en route to class when a “bawling” girl outside caught his attention. Atherton saw the police carry a body strewn on a stretcher to an ambulance.

A paramedic was pumping oxygen through a mask on the unconscious person’s face, he said.

“They were trying to recover the person, but obviously failing to do so,” Atherton said. “You could tell by the sorrow and the lack of speed with which they moved the stretcher that the person might be gone.”

UW sophomore Kellen Nordstrom said he visits friends at the Langdon building several times a week. During that time, he said people from the second floor have often had loud parties and guests had “punched out windows” in the building and been “pretty reckless.”

He stated some of the people from that floor appeared to be under the influence of drugs.

John Stanley from the Dane County coroner’s office said trauma was “ruled out” as the cause of death. Coroners will perform toxicology and microscopic studies to determine the cause of Stellner’s death and release the results in a few weeks.

Stellner received three underage-drinking convictions over the past three years, according to state records.