Applicant Said to Have Lied to Harvard

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. —  The student whose admission to Harvard University was rescinded after the school learned she had killed her mother was rejected for lying about the crime during an admissions interview, sources said.

Gina Grant, 19, claimed during the interview with a Harvard alumnus last year that her mother had died in a car accident, according to sources involved in the admissions process. The sources spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity.

After learning that Grant’s mother, 42-year-old Dorothy Mayfield, was actually bludgeoned to death with a candlestick, Harvard rescinded its offer of admission. Grant’s father died of cancer in 1987.

Grant’s lawyer, Margaret Burnham, said Thursday that the sources’ version of events “is patently false. She never lied to any interviewer.”

Burnham called the leaks “an effort to essentially throw dirt on Gina Grant. After having done the wrong thing by rejecting her, the university now is trying to cover up its tracks by throwing dirt in her direction.”