Colorado state senator calls for review of death of CU Boulder student that was ruled suicide

Lauren Penington, The Denver Post on Jun 5, 2025

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DENVER — Colorado state Sen. Janice Marchman on Thursday called for state investigators to review the death of a University of Colorado Boulder student that coroner’s officials ruled as suicide.

The death of Megan Trussell and the following investigation by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office raised several concerns, Marchman wrote in an email to Attorney General Phil Weiser.

Marchman represents Colorado’s District 15, which includes portions of Boulder and Larimer counties.

“While I recognize that, as a legislator, I do not have oversight over locally elected officials such as sheriffs or coroners, I do believe the state has a responsibility to ensure that forensic standards, investigatory protocols, and access to state-level resources … are equitably applied,” Marchman wrote.

She said she was concerned by the sheriff’s office’s delay in requesting help from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, several pieces of untested evidence and the “lack of clear protocols ensuring minimum forensic procedures before ruling a death a suicide.”

Trussell was last seen leaving her campus dorm room at about 9 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 9. Six days later, her body was found on “hard-to-reach terrain” in Boulder Canyon.

The Boulder County Coroner’s Office ruled Trussell’s death a suicide in late May.

In Colorado, pathologists can label a decedent’s manner of death as suicide, natural, accident, homicide or undetermined.

“Total BS! She did not take her life,” Marchman commented on a Facebook post by the CU Police Department about the ruling. “She was murdered and the entire investigation was botched from the beginning based on bias. As a parent to a student who shared a quad with Megan, I’m terrified for the safety of the students at CU.”

Trussell died from a combination of the toxic effects of amphetamines and hypothermia, coroner officials said, adding that undigested prescription medication was found during the autopsy.

Vanessa Diaz, Trussell’s mother, told the Daily Camera the CU student was prescribed amphetamines to treat her ADHD. Diaz ordered a second, independent autopsy and hired a private investigator to look into her daughter’s death.

“Megan was so vibrant and just a happy, happy child,” Diaz previously told the Daily Camera. “Anybody who knows her knows she was not suicidal. She wouldn’t kill herself. She’s never had any history of that.”

Marchman wrote in her email that she’s working on legislation to strengthen statewide investigatory standards in youth and Indigenous death cases to protect other victims moving forward.

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

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