N.Y. Teacher Missing Since March Is Found Dead in Woods

The body of a beloved Upstate New York English teacher who went missing in March was found in the woods of the Berkshires in Massachusetts, say police.

On Monday, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified remains that were found in Lee on Friday as those of missing woman Meghan Marohn, 42, the Berkshire District Attorney's Office confirmed to PEOPLE.

On Thursday night, "a civilian discovered partial human remains in a heavily wooded area near Fox Drive," Massachusetts State Police said in a statement.

Police have since located additional remains believed to be those of Marohn, according to Massachusetts State Police.

Marohn, who lived in Delmar, New York, and was an English teacher at Shaker High School in Latham, had been missing since March 27.

That same day, her black 2017 Subaru Impreza was found parked on Church Street at Longcope Park, a heavily wooded hiking area in south Lee, which is about 50 miles south of Delmar, police said.

Authorities and Marohn's friends and family launched numerous searches for her.

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Four months after she vanished, her friend, Chris Hedges wrote on a blog that Marohn had told her she'd gone into hiding a few days before she vanished to get away from a man she said was stalking her.

Marohn, Hedges wrote on July 1 on the blog, ScheerPost, "had gone into hiding to escape from a man whom she said had 'brutally harassed and intimidated me because I wouldn't sleep with him,'" Hedges wrote.

"She said she was too afraid to stay at home, especially when she saw him drive by her house. She was granted a leave from teaching and camped out at The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She was last seen on March 27. It was cold, snowy, and windy," Hedges added.

'Teacher, Poet, Artist, Environmentalist'

Marohn was a dedicated teacher and was passionate about reading, curiosity, and books, Hedges wrote.

"She led her students up the metal ladders on the Rutherfurd Observatory on top of Pupin Hall at Columbia University in the rain, over the Brooklyn Bridge, to The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn and the Tenement Museum. She took them on edible food tours of Central Park and out at night to look through telescopes at the rings of Saturn.

"She was one of those unique, impassioned, endlessly curious and deeply caring teachers that transform young lives. In Troy, although chronically short of money, she could be found at the downtown diner at night feeding kids she mentored who came from low-income families."

In a GoFundMe set up by her brother, Peter Naple, Marohn is described as being a "devoted and passionate high school English teacher, poet, artist, and concerned environmentalist who displays deep passion in all her endeavors."

The page describes her as a "charismatic, witty, and a genuinely loving and beautiful person whom I miss dearly and need to know what happened to her."

Police have not said how Marohn died. They are continuing to investigate.

Anyone with information about her disappearance and death is asked to call the Lee Police Department at (413) 243-2100 or the Massachusetts State Police at (508) 358-3100.

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