A 19-year-old student’s October death at the Student Union Memorial Center has been ruled a suicide, according to an autopsy report released in December.
The body of Gregory Thomas Bauer, a music sophomore from Flagstaff, was found by a UA employee on the lowest floor of the SUMC, near Cellar, 1303 E. University Blvd., around 6 a.m. on Oct. 26.
The autopsy report was released Dec. 16. The Arizona Daily Wildcat was not in publication from Dec. 8 to Jan. 10.
The report indicated that Bauer’s body tested positive for Tetrahydrocannibinol Metabolite (THC), indicating he had used marijuana before his death. The tests came back negative for alcohol and other drug use.
At the time of the body’s discovery, police said Bauer, who worked as a student employee at the library, had fallen from the fourth floor of the student union.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Pima County Medical Examiner’s office report indicated the death was from a blunt impact trauma caused by his fall. He sustained injuries to the head with skull fracture and laceration of the brain.
Before the report was released, University of Arizona Police Department spokesman Sgt. Eugene Mejia said the incident was considered a probable suicide.
“All of the information gathered from family and friends and the physical evidence pointed to a suicide,” he said. “But we wanted to wait for an official determination before closing the case.”
This was the first reported suicide of the year at the UA. Before Bauer’s death, there were five reported suicide attempts on campus, said Mejia.
Mejia said the number of attempted suicides and actual suicides reported to UAPD has remained steady over the last few years, but said he has not seen a suicide in such a public place during the six years he’s been at the UAPD.
When police respond to calls where a person is considered suicidal, the person is given counseling resources, Mejia said. UAPD cannot force students to seek treatment, but police try to facilitate some type of counseling.
UA students are generally referred to Campus Health Service’s Counseling and Psychological Services, Mejia said.