At approximately 4:00 p.m. on July 7, 2024, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department was notified of a missing student from Dartmouth College. The student had last been seen by friends around 9:30 p.m. the previous evening while he was attending an informal social gathering.
The following day, when the student did not show up for an engagement, authorities were made aware of the incident. The student was identified as Won Jang, age 20, of Middletown, Delaware.
Charles Dennis, Chief of Police of the Hanover Police Department, said at approximately 3:15 p.m., the Hanover Police and Fire Departments responded to a report of the missing student around 8 Boathouse Road by the docks on the Connecticut River. Witnesses reported last seeing Won Jang in that area around 9:30 p.m. on July 6. Upon arrival, search and rescue operations were initiated by the Hanover Fire Department Dive Team, assisted by the Lebanon and Hartford Fire Departments. New Hampshire Fish and Game, along with NH Marine Patrol, were notified and responded. Once on scene, NH Fish and Game assumed command of the search operations.
Items found near the dock indicated that Jang hadn’t left the river area. Conservation Officers and officers from NH Marine Patrol began to search the river by boat while the NH Fish and Game ROV/Sonar Team began their search utilizing the remotely operated underwater camera. In addition, the Upper Valley Wilderness Response Team began a search using their drone. At approximately 7:30 p.m., Jang’s body was located approximately 65 feet offshore by the underwater camera not far from the dock where he was last seen.
The Dartmouth, the student newspaper of Dartmouth College reported that Chief Dennis said the Department received an anonymous tip that “there may be some hazing involved.” Dennis added that Hanover Police “will look into that aspect” in their investigation.
The paper also reported that Jang, a biomedical engineering major, was a project manager at the DALI Lab, a research assistant at the Thayer School of Engineering, and a member of Beta Alpha Omega fraternity, according to an email from College spokesperson Jana Barnello.
“The College has suspended Beta Alpha Omega fraternity and Alpha Phi sorority following the death of Won Jang, College spokesperson Jana Barnello wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth. “, said the paper.
Jang’s death marked the second time in recent months that a Dartmouth student had been found dead in the Connecticut River. In a previous case, Lorna Campbell, 22, of Manchester, NH, was discovered deceased in the river in May 2024. Campbell’s disappearance had similarly prompted an extensive search operation involving multiple agencies.