US Volunteer Murdered in Nepal

A young American art teacher helping earthquake volunteers was brutally murdered by her host, police in Nepal say. Dahlia Yehia, said to be either 25 or 27, was reported missing more than a month ago after she failed to contact family and friends and police say that a local teacher in the western city of Pokhara has now confessed to her murder, Voice of America reports. They say Narayan Paudel met Yehia through the Couchsurfing.com website and has confessed to beating her to death with a hammer and throwing her body in a river after taking her money, reports the AP.

A police spokesman says Yehia was murdered three days after arriving in Pokhara early last month and they're still searching the river for her body, the AP reports. Police say that after confessing to the murder, Paudel tried to kill himself by leaping from a police station window, according to CNN. Yehia worked as a teacher in Austin, Texas, after graduating from Kalamazoo College and had also worked with young people in Phoenix and Boston. "We are devastated by this senseless loss of a beautiful life," says a post on the Find Dahlia Facebook page. "For those who haven't had the joy of spending time with Dahlia, know that she is a giver, lover, and humanitarian, who devoted her life to others less fortunate both domestic and abroad." (More Nepal stories.)