On May 28, 1995, Sinedu Tadesse, a junior at Harvard College, stabbed her roommate, Trang Phuong Ho, to death, then killed herself.

Tadesse apparently reacted with despair when Ho announced her decision to room with another group of girls their senior year, and the two stopped speaking.

[8] They felt the university had plenty of evidence that Tadesse was losing her mind and becoming fixated on violent vengeance, and could have prevented the deaths.

She also detailed several instances of Harvard students with mental health issues whose situations were exacerbated by unsympathetic university officials and ineffective advisors.

[9] Thernstrom traveled to Tadesse's home in Ethiopia and gained access to her diaries, which revealed her deteriorating mental health, obsessive fantasizing about an ideal friend, and attempts to find effective psychiatric care.