A Northwestern student who was found dead in University Library on May 30 died of an accidental opiate overdose, according to results of an autopsy released last week.
The body of Northfield, Ill., native Brian Tsay, a 25-year-old School of Continuing Studies student, was discovered by a library employee in a men’s bathroom. Paramedics pronounced Tsay dead at the scene.
Tsay’s death was investigated by the Evanston Police Department. Cmdr. Tom Guenther would not say whether the investigation was closed and was unable to offer any additional details on Tsay’s death.
Opiates include heroin, morphine, codeine, Oxycontin and other drugs. It is unclear if Tsay had been prescribed any of those drugs.
Though the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office initially said the toxicology reports would be available six to eight weeks after Tsay’s death, the office took more than ten weeks to complete the investigation. More details were not available because the doctor who worked on Tsay’s case is no longer employed there.
SCS memorialized Tsay with a moment of silence at its commencement ceremony and held a memorial service for friends and family on June 7.
“Brian was a strong student who had come to the school to prepare himself for the next chapter in his career,” SCS Dean Thomas Gibbons wrote in a June 2 e-mail. “He was appreciated as a hardworking and kind person by many of his fellow students and faculty.
“Our sympathy and thoughts are with (Tsay’s) family in their loss,” he wrote.
According to a LinkedIn page, Tsay graduated from the University of Michigan in 2008 with a bachelor of arts in economics and was in a post-baccalaureate finance certificate program at NU.
“On behalf of Northwestern, I offer our deepest sympathy to our student’s family, friends and fellow students,” Vice President for Student Affairs William Banis wrote in an e-mail announcing the death to NU students and staff.
Melanie Wang, then-president of the SCS Student Advisory Board, said the death made her realize the close tie between SCS and the University community.
“From the SAB perspective, it’s a struggle to get a sense of Northwestern’s broader community,” Wang said. “Seeing one of our students on the news and the tragedy that has happened, it hits home for us that our students are just as much a part of Northwestern.”
– Lark Turner
