MBTA Death Puzzles Investigators, Family

The case of a 17-year-old female whose body was found on subway tracks near the Harvard Square T-station Thursday night continues to baffle investigators.

“The case is still up in the air,” said MBTA spokesperson Lydia M. Rivera yesterday.

An MBTA conductor for the outbound Red Line found Jayme Lipkin-Moore’s body in a tunnel 250 feet north of the Harvard Square stop around 8 p.m. on Thursday night, shutting down outbound T traffic for nearly three hours.

Rivera said that while Lipkin-Moore had “suffered trauma,” investigators have not yet determined the cause of her death, including whether she was hit by a train.

They have not ruled out suicide or homicide, she said.

According to Rivera, Lipkin-Moore, a high school senior from Derry, N.H., had been visiting Boston for the day.

Caren Lipkin-Moore, the victim’s mother, told the Boston Globe that it was normal for her daughter to travel into Boston.

“She’d probably done that trip 20 or more times in the last two years—it was her thing,’’ said Lipkin-Moore, who added that her daughter was National Merit finalist who planned to attend Brandeis or Boston University. ‘’The day before it happened, she told me, `I’ve got to go to Boston tomorrow.’ It was her nourishment.’’

A week before the incident, a 17-year-old female was struck and killed by an MBTA commuter train, but Rivera said the two incidents are unrelated.

In this case, investigators were able to determine immediately that the incident was an accident, Rivera said.

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.