SUNY New Paltz Murderer Leaves Students Feeling Unsettled
NEW PALTZ, NY — SUNY New Paltz, a small public college nestled in the heart of the Hudson Valley, made national headlines early February when SUNY New Paltz student, Jared Eng, 22, was found guilty of his own mother’s murder.
As reported by the New York Post, Eng slit his mother’s throat during a heated argument regarding his deceased father’s will. According to Eng, who admitted it took his mother “a while to die” over the phone, called on his two girlfriends with whom he was in a polyamorous relationship with, to help dispose of his mother’s mangled corpse.
The killing took place in Paula Chin’s Tribeca apartment and her body was then put into a duffle bag and transported to Eng’s second home in Morristown, NJ; where her body was left in a trash bin outside of the home, which was later found after Eng’s brother had reported her missing. Caitlyn O’Rourke, 21 and Jennifer Lopez, 18 were also charged with tampering with evidence and concealment of a corpse. All three people involved in this case, are students at the small liberal arts college, SUNY New Paltz.
The SUNY New Paltz community is shaken by this event and shocked that they may have once shared a dining hall, a classroom or even a dorm building with a murderer.
Caroline Rowley, a junior at SUNY New Paltz, recalls having a Digital Storytelling class with Eng, who took many media and photography classes during his time at New Paltz. “I remember one of his videos was really creepy,” Rowley says, “and I remember him standing shirtless while someone behind him cut his back with their nails. It was really dark.”
The SUNY New Paltz reputation though, while it is too early to see the effects of this incident on the college’s image, is already something of concern for some students. Something as gruesome as this can tarnish the face of an institution if not handled or addressed properly.
Concerned for the reputation of the school, Clare Walter, ’19 said,
“New Paltz should be known for its creative, accepting, diverse, and motivated student body. Unfortunately, it already has a bad reputation linked to drug use, and now it’s associated with a murder. I would hate for future employees or prospective students to see the college I graduated from and reduce it to drug use and a violent murder case.”
Another student, Jonathan Heins, ’19 is not satisfied with how the college has failed to addressed the incident in any way. “Personally,” Heins says, “it’s a little unsettling to know that the college hasn’t notified their students of such a heinous crime. Nothing.” Similarly to Rowley, Heins is also slightly concerned for how this might affect the reputation of his soon-to-be alma mater.
“I think this will have a slight impact on the way people perceive the student body here at New Paltz.” Heins is worried that this incident might be the first thing that people think of when they hear of New Paltz, instead of the positive notoriety the college has garnered in recent years.
