In a stunning twist to Sunday's murder-suicide in Dunster House, authorities are trying to determine if a letter delivered to The Crimson last week suggests that the killing may have been premeditated.

And the sole witness to the Dunster House stabbing--the 26-year-old friend of victim Trang Phuong Ho '96--said in a published report today that she believed the brutal killing had been premeditated.

"I think she planned it," Thao Nguyen, 26, said in today's editions of The Boston Herald of the stabbings committed by Sinedu Tadesse '96. Nguyen was visiting Ho to help her move out of her dorm and was also injured in the attack.

"I heard the screaming and I opened my eyes," Nguyen told The Herald. "I tried to get the knife...but I couldn't."

On Sunday night, Harvard police recovered a strange envelope from a dumpster outside The Crimson's building at 14 Plympton St.

The envelope contained a wallet-sized color photograph of Tadesse along with a cryptic typewritten message: "Keep this picture. There will soon be a very juicy story involving the person in this picture."

According to editors, the envelope had neither a postage stamp nor a return address, and Crimson staffers had thrown it in the trash soon after it was received last Tuesday, five days before the Dunster stabbings.

After Harvard police discovered the letter at The Crimson, they turned it over to state police. Those authorities will conclude fingerprint, handwriting and other tests on the letter this week, according to First Assistant District Attorney Martin F. Murphy.

He refused to comment further.

The letter provides fodder for those who speculate that the murder may have been premeditated.

"It would seem to me that someone who sent a letter like that must have been planning something," said Dr. Randolph Catlin Jr., a psychiatrist who is the director of mental health services.

Murphy's Report

In other news, Murphy yesterday released the contents of the autopsy reports performed on the corpses of Tadesse and Ho.

According to Murphy, doctors at the state medical examiners office confirmed that Ho's death was the result of about 45 stab wounds to the face, neck, chest, arms and legs.

Tadesse died of strangulation as a result of suicidal hanging, Murphy said. He added that there were no signs of any other injuries, which could indicate that there was little if any struggle between Ho and Tadesse.