Missing college student Saniyya Dennis appears to have died by suicide

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A missing 19-year-old student at SUNY Buffalo State College is believed to have committed suicide, according to investigators. 

“It appears this poor girl took her own life,” Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said Thursday during a press conference. 

According to a report of the press conference by New York’s Pix11, Flynn recounted the final hours of young Saniyya Dennis. 

Flynn noted that she and her boyfriend had argued earlier that day and had broken up. Dennis reportedly continued to contact the boyfriend and threatened to take her own life. 

She also told another friend that she was planning to end her life. That friend told investigators they stayed on the phone with her for four hours, and Dennis said she was feeling better and had changed her mind about suicide. 

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However, at 11 p.m., Dennis was seen throwing items in a garbage can. Investigators did not comment on what she threw away but maintained the contents would make someone believe she did not plan to return. 

Dennis was seen on video one hour later on the bridge along Goat Island Road near Niagara Falls. 

Flynn said Dennis took a call from a friend, and they spoke for 45 minutes, a conversation in which Dennis told her friend she was going to jump off the bridge. She also posted a snapshot selfie with the falls in the background. 

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Dennis sent a final text to a friend saying she was headed back to Buffalo after speaking to her mother, however, cellphone records disproved that. Moments later, her cellphone was no longer registered on the network. 

Her father, rapper 40 Cal of Harlem group The Diplomats, rallied support to find his daughter via social media. The two-week search involved multiple agencies, family members, friends and the local Buffalo community. 

A search for Dennis will continue, however, investigators have advised her family the young woman’s body may never be recovered. 

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