WELLESLEY, Mass. (AP) – A Wellesley College freshman missing since Monday was found dead Thursday in a wooded area on the sprawling campus, officials said. They stressed there was no obvious sign of foul play.

KateLynn Palmer, 18, a freshman from Chico, Calif., was last seen Monday afternoon by one of her roommates, school spokeswoman Mary Ann Hill said. The roommates reported her missing on Wednesday.

The cause of death was not immediately known.

“Our hearts and prayers are with her family and her friends,” Hill said. “This is a tragic situation.”

There were no obvious signs of trauma to the body, which was discovered between her dormitory and another dormitory, about 40 yards into the woods, investigators said. Her body, which was fully clothed, was found near a small culvert.

An autopsy was performed by the state medical examiner’s office, but the manner and cause of death were still undetermined late Thursday, said David Traub, a spokesman for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office.

Traub said the body had no gunshot wounds, stab wounds or indications of a beating.

“There were no signs of blunt trauma or that kind of injury,” Traub said. “At this point, they’re doing some further medical tests to see if they can ascertain what the cause of death was.”

Toxicology tests were among the tests planned, he said.

“At this point, we still don’t have grounds to determine if there’s foul play involved here. What we’ve collected thus far has not led us to make that kind of determination,” Traub said.

Traub said investigators have spoken to Palmer’s roommates and friends to try to determine what she did just before she was last seen.

Palmer’s family in California was notified of her death. Wellesley President Diana Chapman Walsh informed students and faculty in an e-mail.

Walsh “wanted to make sure that people knew that the initial examination revealed no outward signs of foul play, to allay concerns they might have for their own safety,” Hill said.

Wellesley, an elite all-women’s school with 2,300 students, is on a 500-acre campus in an affluent suburb west of Boston.

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