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News

Student dies at Cullen Oaks

Death may have occurred days ago; 
authorities say no foul play was involved

by KELSIE HAHN
The Daily Cougar

A UH student was found dead in his room on the second floor of Building 3 of the Cullen Oaks residence hall Tuesday morning, apparently from natural causes, a University release said.

The student's identification was withheld pending notification of the family.

UHPD officials said there were no signs of forced entry or foul play and that the student died from natural causes "according to preliminary indications," the release said, and the Harris County Medical Examiner's office will report an official cause of death following an autopsy.

The death also appeared to have occurred several days prior to the body's discovery by maintenance personnel, according to the release.

Cullen Oaks residents said they had been blocked from their second-floor rooms without explanation Tuesday morning, but an unidentifiable smell had been permeating the area for several days. Several students had attributed it to a waste-removal problem, and that they had first noticed the odor over the weekend.

"It just smelled like trash," university studies freshman Justin Davis, who lived across the hall from the deceased, said. "It smelled like somebody had left some trash out."

Davis said the thought of death being behind the smell had never occurred to him.

"I wasn't really thinking anything like that," he said. "I'm pretty much shocked. … It bothers me a little bit, especially since it's right across the hall."

Psychology senior Deslaune Burns said the floors in the residence hall had recently been deep cleaned, which led her to wonder where the smell was originating.

"I knew something was not right," she said. "They did cut off our water, so later I thought maybe it was sewage, but sewage doesn't really smell like that. Then I thought, ‘They've turned our water off on numerous occasions, and it never did that.'"

Others said they hadn't reported the problem to housing because they thought the issue would resolve itself.

"I just kind of moved on," health junior Angel Shamblin said. "We thought it was just bad trash, or someone cooked something nasty."

Sports administration junior Christa Raley, who often visits the floor, said no one thought anything was wrong.

"It's a college dorm. It's normal to have a weird smell," she said.

Several expressed shock and sadness that it had taken at least several days for the student's body to be found.

"It's real unfortunate," Raley said. "It's scary to think that no one knew he was missing."

Burns expressed similar feelings about the incident.

"If it was me, I would want somebody to call. Maybe somebody did call, like his parents and friends, wondering why he didn't answer the phone," she said. "I feel kind of bad, because I'm thinking maybe I should have called and complained or said something so that they could have opened the door sooner."

--With additional reporting by Shannah LeDee

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