TWO PEOPLE were yesterday being held by police in Chicago in connection with the mugging of an Irish student who remains in a critical condition in hospital in the United States, the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed last night.
Natasha McShane (23), a postgraduate student from UCD who was studying at the University of Illinois in Chicago and her friend, Stacy Jurich (24), were attacked while on the way back to Ms Jurich’s home on Friday.
Ms McShane sustained head injuries in the assault after she and her friend were mugged and struck with a baseball bat. Both women were knocked unconscious and transferred to the intensive care unit of Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital.
Media in Chicago yesterday reported that two people were being questioned in relation to the incident and that a baseball bat had been recovered.
Ms McShane remains in critical condition in hospital although Ms Jurich’s condition has been upgraded from a serious to a “fair condition”, according to a spokeswoman for the hospital.
Ms Jurich regained consciousness on Saturday and talked to her mother Wendy Gay Van Etten who later told the media that the robber had struck her daughter on the back of the head, causing her to stumble to the ground before striking Ms McShane two or three times on the head before hitting Ms Jurich again as she got up.
Ms McShane, a UCD student, has been studying at the University of Illinois college of urban planning and public affairs since January and had just secured an internship in the US.
She completed her primary degree at Queen’s University in Belfast and completed an MA in urban and regional planning at UCD. In 2008 she was awarded a cross-Border scholarship, organised by Universities Ireland.