IVORY TOWERS: Cornell student dies in frat house chimney

A Cornell University senior was found dead in a fraternity house chimney last week after he had been missing for two days, according to the Ithaca, N.Y. Police Department. Twenty-one year-old Terrence Quinn was reported missing after he had been "drinking heavily" early Friday morning, January 15, Ithaca Police Chief Harlin McEwen said in a statement last week. Psi Upsilon fraternity brothers spotted Quinn's clothes in the chimney chute and discovered his body while trying to start a fire the following Monday. Police and fire department officials spent six hours dismantling part of the chimney and breaking open a second-floor wall in order to reach Quinn's body, which was lodged approximately 10 feet from the top of the chimney, McEwen's statement said. The body was finally removed from the chimney early Tuesday morning, according to McEwen's statement. According to The Cornell Daily Sun, a custodian working in the house claimed to have heard cries for help at 10 a.m. Friday. After looking around and noticing nothing suspicious, the custodian, who asked that his name be withheld, dismissed the noises. McEwen's statements did not confirm the custodian's testimony. Rumors concerning the strange death have spread wildly across the Cornell campus, and all rush events were halted for one day last week as the Interfraternity Council met to discuss the tragedy's effect on rush, the newspaper reported. "We are unable to explain fully the circumstances surrounding [Quinn's] death, and it would be wrong to speculate or jump to unjustified conclusions," Cornell University President Frank Rhodes said last week. Members of the Psi Upsilon fraternity said last week in a statement they were "shocked and saddened" and "unable to explain" how Quinn, who was a member of a different fraternity, ended up in their chimney. Cornell Public Safety Investigator Scott Hamilton said that while there are several possible ways Quinn could have climbed onto the roof, police are still working with medical examiners to discover whether foul play or drunkenness was responsible for Quinn's death. McEwen told the Sun that Quinn may have reached the roof through an accessible fire escape. Tompkins County Examiner John Maines said Quinn died of "positional asphyxia," a condition described as "a compromise of the body's airways due to the prolonged bending of the neck." Both Hamilton and Maines said the toxicology reports, which will determine the precise cause of Quinn's death, will not be available for at least three to four weeks. Quinn was buried Saturday in his hometown of Medford, Mass., Cornell News Service director Linda Grace-Kobas said. Grace-Kobas said that while Cornell organized no mass transportation for Quinn's friends to attend the funeral, university officials have been working with Quinn's family members, friends, and fraternity brothers to hold a special memorial service on campus. Rhodes visited the Psi Upsilon house and Quinn's own fraternity house to offer his condolences last week. Cornell has set up several support services to help Quinn's friends and others affected by the tragedy cope with the student's death.

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