Woman Died from Meningitis, Not Beating

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Police thought a Lawrence Township woman was beaten to death inside her apartment. Her neighbors were on edge. But late this afternoon came word that the woman's death was not murder.

Throughout the day police continued guarding the Lawrenceville Gardens Apartment that belong to 35-year-old Tanja Andric, who appeared to be badly beaten when police discovered inside building G Saturday night.

But an autopsy today revealed it wasn't a beating that killed her, but viral meningitis - a relatively common and rarely serious infection of fluid in the spinal cord and fluid that surround the brain.

Mercer County Prosecutor's say Tanjan Andric had been dealing with a case of viral meningitis for at least three years.

She moved to New Jersey earlier this year from Chicago to take a job at Bristol Myers Squibb's Hopewell campus and went to work on Friday.

Neighbors say they didn't Andric, rarely saw her, but are sadden by the young woman's untimely death. A few people have placed flowers along trees outside her apartment, just underneath the police tape.

(Copyright 2007 by Action News and 6abc. All Rights Reserved.)

(Copyright ©2009 WPVI-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)