Liz Butterfield
Online News Editor
VCU freshman Emma Munson died this past weekend after falling and injuring her head at a house party in the Fan.
Munson, a freshman in the art foundation program, was drinking at a party with friends at 11 S. Morris St. on Saturday night. Around 11:40 p.m., Munson fell backwards down a flight of stairs, hit her head and was knocked unconscious. Her head was bleeding and she was breathing inconsistently, said Matt Simpson, a Richmond resident who saw Munson fall and tried to perform CPR on her.
“I asked what her name was, and she said ‘Emma,’ and then she dropped,” Simpson said.
Paramedics arrived around 11:45 p.m. and rushed Munson to VCU Medical Center.
As of press time, it is unclear whether Munson was pronounced dead Saturday night or early Sunday morning; friends learned of her death on Sunday.
Munson celebrated her 19th birthday on Sept. 25. She was from Pittsburgh, Penn. and enjoyed music and art. Friends say she planned to major in glassblowing or art therapy after finishing the art foundation program.
Grace Whiteside, a freshman art student and close friend of Munson’s, attended the party. Although Munson had been drinking, Whiteside said her friend was not visibly intoxicated at the time of the fall.
“We had been drinking a little bit but it wasn’t to any extent that we couldn’t control the situation,” she said. “She was the friendliest person I had met. She couldn’t say a bad thing about anybody and that’s something I really respected.”