A family were plunged into mourning after their oldest daughter was found dead in her dorm room only days after she started university in Canada.

Shiloh Roberts, 18, a former Bermuda High School pupil, was discovered by police on Saturday at Brescia College, University of Western Ontario, in an unresponsive state. The cause of death is unknown.

Linda Parker, head of school at BHS said: “While this news is very sad and we are grieving the loss of Shiloh, we will remember a joyful, kind and happy young lady who had a beautiful smile.

“We are so thankful for having had the opportunity to know her and for her to have been part of the BHS family.”

A family friend, who asked not to be named, said Ms Roberts was “a beautiful kid, really friendly and looking forward to going away to school — a very happy child from a very close- knit family”.

The friend added: “She was a vibrant, beautiful girl from a loving family, well loved, well liked and well known. Her mother and father worked so hard for those girls.

“We are not supposed to question God, but why take the good?”

Ms Roberts, the older of two girls, finished her studies at BHS only this summer.

Ms Roberts told The Royal Gazette in an interview with her class in February that her aspiration was to “excel in the field of dentistry”.

Brescia, a liberal arts college with about 1,100 undergraduates in London, Ontario, is Canada’s only university-level women’s college.

The college said: “With the sudden death of an international student at Brescia University College, the university’s primary focus during this difficult time is to remain respectful of the student’s family and of the process.

“The university will not be sharing further details at this time. We have the appropriate counselling and support resources in place and readily available for our students, faculty and staff on campus, who are suffering through this loss.”

Police told a reporter at The London Free Press newspaper they were working with the coroner’s office in the investigation, but that the death was not considered suspicious.

The news also devastated former colleagues at the Harrington Hundreds supermarket in Smith’s, where Ms Roberts, who lived near by, packed groceries for several years.

One grief-stricken store employee said: “She was a beautiful girl who was always friendly. She was a pleasure to work with — people really liked her.”