Mystery still shrouds the death of 18-year-old University of Colorado student Jesse Gomez, who was found dead in early April in his Boulder dormitory.
But today the Boulder coroner’s office ruled out drugs and alcohol after an extensive forensic autopsy and toxicological analysis showed no signs of trauma or foul play. The official cause will be listed as “undetermined” unless new evidence in the case arises, authorities said.
“This just confirms what we believed all along, that Jesse’s death was not caused by alcohol or drugs,” Gomez’s father Joe Gomez II said. “I think that not knowing exactly what caused his death, but knowing what did not cause his death continues the belief we have in my son and all he accomplished in such a short life.
“We’ll just continue to cherish his life and all the positive memories we have of him,” Gomez said.
Toxicology testing revealed no drugs in Gomez’s system, and the alcohol level in his blood was 0.159 percent, which is not enough to be fatal, Coroner Tom Faure said.
“There was no pathology found at autopsy, either an injury or by microscopic review that accounts for his death,” Faure said. “And there were no medical problems that could account for it.”
Typically, a 0.35 percent blood alcohol level is considered a fatal amount, but it also depends on other factors such as the person’s size and experience with alcohol, he said.
An undetermined cause of death not common, but it’s not unheard of, either, Faure said. Generally, the causes of 1 to 3 percent of deaths that go through autopsies are deemed undetermined, he said.
The police investigation will continue to try to determine why Gomez died, CU police Lt. Tim McGraw said.
“This investigation very much still remains on the front burner,” McGraw said. “No one had pre-judged this case, and none of the investigators forwarded any strong hyphothesis into a cause.”
Speculation has swirled among friends of Gomez and in the media about what killed him since his body was found in his dorm room on April 9.
Gomez was a star tennis player, wrestler and National Honor Society member while at Bear Creek High School in Lakewood. At CU, he studied engineering and was involved in a student leadership program.
“We remain very sad over Jesse’s death,” CU spokesman Barrie Hartman said. “He was a quality young man, with a very promising future. We had a feeling all along that his death was not due to drugs and alcohol, and we feel badly for his family who had to suffer through too much hurtful speculation by the media.”
Speculation was fueled when Boulder fraternity Theta Xi confirmed Gomez had attended one of its house parties the night before he died.
In response, the Interfraternity Council suspended alcohol at Greek events, but since lifted the ban as it became more apparent that Theta Xi did nothing wrong, Greek advocate Mark Stine said.
The Gomez family still hopes police investigators will determine what happened, but for now they are content to know what did not kill Jesse Gomez.
“We don’t know if we’ll ever know,” Joe Gomez said. “But this just confirms what we knew all along, that Jesse was a very good person.”
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com
