The body of a 23-year-old City of Ithaca resident was discovered at 8 a.m. yesterday morning in Cascadilla Gorge.
The victim, a white male who did not attend Cornell, was found near the Stewart Avenue Bridge. A forensic post-mortem examination is scheduled for 10 a.m. today in Binghamton. According to Lt. David Nazer, the IPD expects to find that the victim committed suicide.
“It’s too early to release information if there was foul play, but none is suspected,” Nazer said. He believed the victim fell into the gorge “sometime last night or early this morning.”
Mike Frame ’01, who lives in a house overlooking Cascadilla Gorge, was among those who first saw the body.
“I woke up to the sound of a girl screaming in anguish; I’ve never heard someone scream like that before,” Frame said.
Frame spotted a Cornell University Police officer driving by and alerted him as to the situation. Shortly thereafter, fire trucks and emergency personnel arrived to begin the retrieval process.
The IPD identified the victim and contacted the family, but are notifying other family members before disclosing his identity to the public, Nazer said.
Simeon Moss, deputy news service director for Cornell News Service, explained that the University expresses its sympathy for the victim’s family, but has no other official response. “It’s not our investigation, but we’re not unconcerned,” Moss said.
Archived article by Ken Meyer