A 21-year-old old who entered Columbia University with a full scholarship and a bright future was found dead of a possible overdose in a dorm room on Sunday, officials said, as reported by New York Daily News. Jessica Fingers, a former track star at Monticello High School, had taken a leave of absence from the university last spring but was reportedly staying with a female friend and visiting her boyfriend, who are both current Columbia students.
Police said the two discovered Fingers' unconscious body in the dorm room around 11:45 a.m.and called the authorities.
"I woke up and the love of my life was dead next to me," Peter Russell, Fingers' boyfriend, wrote on his Facebook page.
Police have suspected a drug overdose is what caused Fingers' death.
"It is with deep sadness and regret that I write to inform you of the untimely loss of one of our students, who has been on leave from Columbia but visiting campus at the time of her passing," Columbia Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger wrote in a campus e-mail.
Fingers was reportedly studying Sociology at Columbia on a full scholarship. She also was a standout on her high school cross-country team, The River Reporter, a local paper near Fingers' hometown in upstate New York reported.
It is not yet clear why Fingers took a leave of absence from Columbia, but her mom said she reportedly had health problems. She appeared to have suffered last year from a series of blood clots in her brain and a stroke.
"My beautiful, strong daughter, Jessica is making a speedy recovery after her stroke," wrote Athena Fingers-Bellamy on her Facebook wall on Feb. 6, 2012.
Fingers-Bellamy also told the New York Daily News she did not approve of her boyfriend.
"I never liked him. ... He influenced the decisions she made in the last few months. He wasn't good for her. ... She said she was in love. ... That's why she wanted to go into the city all of the time, to visit him."
