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Police in upstate New York are investigating the murder of Rochester Institute of Technology professor Edline Chun, a native of Hilo whose body was discovered Wednesday at the bottom of a ravine.
Rochester police have a "person of interest" in custody but have not released any further details, The Associated Press reported.
Chun’s body was found in Tryon Park, on Rochester’s eastern city limits. Police believe she was shot and killed during a robbery.
Police Chief James Sheppard told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that Chun’s vehicle had been stolen before her death, although it is unclear when exactly Chun was killed.
Police said Chun was "targeted," but they do not believe that she knew the person of interest.
Chun was an adjunct professor at RIT’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences and had been at the college for more than 20 years.
Marie Kuramoto of Hilo remembered her cousin as health-conscious and "more on the quiet side."
Kuramoto helped to care for Chun’s parents in their latter years and would see Chun whenever she returned to Hilo to visit.
Kuramoto said Chun, who taught technical writing courses at RIT and also worked as a freelance writer, had already distinguished herself as a good writer when she attended Hilo High School in the 1950s.
In a statement released Friday, RIT provost Jeremy Haefner called Chun "a well-respected and beloved faculty member" who is remembered by colleagues as someone who "always went above and beyond to serve the students and the school with passion, integrity and the utmost class."
