UC Davis student believed missing in Haiti earthquake

[The Straight Story]

UC Davis student believed missing in Haiti earthquake


DAVIS, CA - A UC Davis doctoral student who was doing ecological restoration research in Haiti is unaccounted for after Tuesday's devastating earthquake, say university officials.

University spokeswoman Sylvia Wright said the last time anyone heard from Starry Sprenkle was 1:53 Tuesday afternoon when she sent a text message to her family. The magnitude-7.0 quake struck 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince about 5 p.m.

In the text, Sprenkle, 28, said she was her way to Port-au-Prince with her toddler daughter to meet her husband, Erlantz Hyppolite. Hyppolite, a doctor Sprenkle met in Haiti, was taking care of his dying mother, according to Wright.

Sprenkle has been enrolled at UCD since Fall, 2007, and was registered to start classes Jan. 4. Her ecology professor, Dr. Kevin Rice, said Sprenkle had been studying and doing research in Haiti for six or seven years.

"She is very experienced in the country. She has her daughter with her. She is not naive about the situation there. She is pretty well experienced and obviously I'm concerned, but it's not like she doesn't know her way around the country," said Rice.

http://www.news10.net/news/story.aspx?storyid=73244&catid=2

[11 Bravo]

1. If Starry is a hot blonde, Fox will be all over it