The Castleton campus of Vermont State University reopens on Monday after a retired dean at the school was found shot to death on a rail trail last week.

Honoree Fleming, 77, was killed by a gunshot to the back of the head, an autopsy revealed, WRGB reports. She was found dead on the Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail Thursday afternoon at about 4:30, as CrimeOnline reported.

Witnesses told police they saw a man leaving the area shortly after the gunfire. They described him as about 5 feet 10 inches tall with dark hair, wearing a gray shirt, and carrying a black backpack. No suspects have been identified thus far.

Vermont State Police said that Fleming began her walk on the trail at about 4 p.m. and was found dead 30 minutes later.

WRGB said that classes at the VSU campus will resume on Tuesday and that counseling would be available for anyone who needs it.

Fleming joined the staff at the school in the early 2000s and eventually became dean of education. Joe Mark, who hired her when he was academic dean, said she quickly became a beloved fixture on campus, even after her 2012 retirement.

“She was my closest confidant and colleague,” Mark told WCAX. “She could be a great, even fierce champion of students and their needs. She’s the kind of person who was so ethical that she didn’t hesitate to speak truth to power.”

Fleming leaves behind her husband, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Powers, and a son. Powers wrote the New York Times best-seller “Nobody Cares About Crazy People,” about the history of mental illness treatment in America and the couple’s two sons’ struggle with schizophrenia.

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[Featured image: Honoree Fleming/Vermont State Police]