rivers purple beech appears suddenly dead

[jmroller]

I found a post on your site from 2014 with photos and a description that are identical to what I've experienced--except that she shows a leaf that has popped out near the base of the trunk. Mine is showing no signs of life. Suddenly last summer probably in August, it looked like it was dying from lack of water (exactly what the 2014 poster thought about hers)--EXCEPT it was 15 years old, well-established, and we weren't having any drought. I started watering it as much as I could; a couple of branches looked like they might have survived. However, this spring no activity--nothing. I have read about some mysterious disease that is killing beeches. I have no idea what has happened to mine. Very sad. I won't replace it--too expensive and slow-growing--at 15 years it had finally gotten somewhere. Curious if anyone knows what might have caused this. The photos from 2014 are exactly like my tree looks--minus the new leaf :-(