Yale Student Dies in Chemistry Accident

Yale University senior Michele DuFault died in an accident Tuesday night in a chemistry lab, school officials said Wednesday. DuFault, a Massachusetts native, was reportedly working on her senior project in the lab when her hair got caught in a lathe, a piece of machinery that spins around rapidly, and it pulled her in. The New Haven fire department responded to an emergency call at the lab at 2:33 a.m., and when the fire personnel got to DuFault, she reportedly had no pulse. “Michele was an extraordinary young woman, one of the most precocious students who her teachers ever encountered,” said Head of School Robert P. Henderson, Jr. The cause of death is still undetermined.