Wellesley girl found in stream later dies

A 16-year-old Wellesley girl died yesterday, hours after authorities pulled her unresponsive body from an icy stream in Andover, near where she had attended a house party the night before, officials said.

Partygoers told police they began searching for the teenager after she told friends she was leaving the house at 5 a.m. yesterday. When they were unable to locate her, someone called police, who began a search at 6:50 a.m., said Lieutenant James Hashem of the Andover police.

"I think they were concerned because she wasn't from the area and she was leaving on foot," Hashem said.

Steve O'Connell, a spokesman for the Essex County district attorney's office, said the teenager was pronounced dead at 5:27 p.m. at Children's Hospital in Boston. Her name was withheld.

An administrator at Concord Academy, an independent school in Concord, said the teen was a junior day student from Wellesley.

"Our first priority is to turn to the family and be available to them and then to our own students to ensure their care and safety," said Pam Safford, associate head of enrollment and planning, before the death was announced.

Last night Safford issued the following statement: "The Con cord Academy community was devastated to learn that a student critically injured Sunday morning has passed away. She was an independent thinker with a finely tuned sense of humor, and we are all mourning her loss. Right now we are focused on offering support to our students and to the rest of the [Concord Academy] community. Our hearts go out to her family and friends."

Hashem told reporters at an afternoon press conference that he did not know who was hosting the party on William Street or if adults were present. He would not say whether drinking may have been involved. He said police were investigating.

"We're trying to find out what she was doing prior to leaving the house, while she was at the house, and what she did after she left the house," said Hashem, adding the house was being treated as a crime scene.

The teen is at least the second in the state to die after leaving a party in recent months. In October, 17-year-old Taylor Meyer of Plainville was found dead in a swampy area, after wandering off from a drinking party in Norfolk. She drowned. A 19-year-old Plainville man was charged with supplying alcohol to her.

Hashem said authorities from Andover and Methuen and State Police used dogs and a helicopter to search the area, about 20 miles north of Boston just inside Interstate 495. An officer found the teen submerged in an icy creek that flows into Hussey Brook Pond, a 5-acre pond behind William Street, Hashem said.

O'Connell said the teen was found face-down in the stream, which was partially frozen and about 3 feet deep.

Officers performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the teen, who was then taken by ambulance to Lawrence General Hospital. She later was taken by helicopter Children's.

Authorities said the girl was found near Warwick Circle, which is on the opposite side of the pond from William Street. The street opens into a wooded area that has a small stream running through it. The narrow stream was filled with muck, but the water was flowing yesterday, amid snow banks and trees.

Ted Teichert, chairman of the Andover Board of Selectmen, said he heard the helicopter hovering over his neighborhood, not far from the house party.

Two neighbors, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said in separate interviews that a Concord Academy student lives at the house where the party was held. Students on campus described the student who lives in the home as a senior.

A 24-year-old neighbor said she saw teenagers arriving at the house about 9 p.m. Saturday. When she returned home at 2 a.m. yesterday, she saw five or six cars outside the house and could tell a party was still going on. But the neighbor said there was no loud music. When she woke up at 8 a.m., she said she saw a police car parked outside the house.

"We knew there was real trouble when we noticed there was a helicopter circling above our house," the neighbor said.

Another neighbor said she saw several teenagers walking along William Street when she left her house about 6:30 a.m. for tennis. She said that by the time she returned home, police cruisers filled the road.

Concord Academy is an elite college preparatory school for grades 9 through 12 that has produced such graduates as Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust, Caroline Kennedy, and Queen Noor of Jordan.

Roughly half of the school's 367 students live on campus, while the rest are day students, according to the school's website.

Safford said yesterday she did not know whether other Concord Academy students were at the party.

While police have not said whether drinking was involved, Safford said there are strict rules about student behavior both on and off campus. The school does not attempt to enforce a curfew for students who live off campus.

"We're not in charge of curfew for those kids who are in the care of their own parents. We would not have known her whereabouts," Safford said. "There is no doubt about the behavior we would expect of all of our students, and [not] drinking would be one of those rules."

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com. Globe correspondents Richard Thompson, John Forrester, and Adam JV Sell contributed to this report.