NEW YORK CITY ? A woman found strangled in an upper Manhattan park was identified through dental records Wednesday as a missing Juilliard drama student, the medical examiner’s office said.

The death of Sarah Fox, 21, was declared a homicide after the autopsy determined the cause, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office.

Fox, who lived less than a mile from the spot in Inwood Hill Park where her body was found, was last seen May 19 as she left home to exercise.

Volunteer searchers found the body Tuesday in a wooded ravine south of the Henry Hudson Parkway, near the northern tip of Manhattan.

She was a third-year drama student at the elite Juilliard School and previously attended the Southern New Jersey Academy of the Performing Arts.