"Missing student found in Charles River; Was bound with chains, weighted with cinder block" by Brian Ballou |
Globe Staff, October 09, 2012
A man found dead in the Charles River Tuesday morning near the Boston
University Bridge has been identified as graduate student Jonathan
Dailey, who had been missing for a week, the Suffolk district
attorney’s office said.
“The facts and circumstances surrounding Mr. Dailey’s death remain
under investigation by State Police detectives assigned to the Suffolk
DA’s office,” Jake Wark, a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel F.
Conley, said in a statement Tuesday evening. “We rule out no
possibility, and we promise Mr. Dailey’s family a thorough,
comprehensive search for the truth as we investigate his death.”
That would be a first.
A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told the
Globe earlier Tuesday that the body was bound with chains and weighted
down by a cinder block. But the district attorney’s office said in its
statement, “We will not be discussing evidence recovered at or near the
scene of this morning’s recovery effort.”
Wark said Dailey was identified from dental records.
Investigators are trying to determine whether he was a victim of foul
play or that something else led to the death, including suicide, said
the law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because the matter is under investigation.
The police aren't really interested in solving crimes, are they?
You really think it might be a suicide?
Related: Arkansas Acrobatics
Another Houdini, huh?
Neither the cause nor manner of death had been determined yet by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Wark said.
Dailey, 23, a North Carolina native who was taking a semester off
from course work at Boston Architectural College, had been missing
since Oct. 2. He was reported missing on Oct. 5.
Miles Smith, Dailey’s longtime friend and roommate, said, “I’m
speechless,” during brief comments outside the two men’s apartment
Tuesday evening on Gardner Street in Allston.
Asked what it was like to lose the hope that Dailey might be alive,
he said, “I worked hard to hold on to that for as long as I could. And
once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Smith also said he could not think of anyone who might want to harm
Dailey. “He’s very charismatic, a great friend to all he met.”
In an interview earlier Tuesday, Smith had said that he and his
friend bonded “over indulging in adventures. He’s an Eagle Scout, and
we both love adventure, but we always prepare.”
Smith said the last time he and Dailey went on such an adventure was
several weeks ago, to Maine. They visited a gorge where they camped,
swam, and cliff-dived. The last time he saw Dailey was the evening of
Oct. 2 in their Allston apartment, after Dailey came home from work.
Dailey had a slice of pizza and sat down with Smith to watch an
episode of “The Office.” They chatted about how their day went and then
Smith went to bed at about 9 p.m.
Smith said it was out of character for Dailey to simply disappear.
Dailey worked as a sales associate at American Apparel on Brattle
Street in Cambridge. Dailey and Smith earned bacelor’s degrees in
architecture from Appalachian State University in North Carolina.
They were in their second year of graduate school, but both were
taking a semester off. Smith described Dailey as very creative and
intelligent, with an eccentric side.
Dailey’s sister and brother-in-law could not be reached Tuesday
night. But they told the Globe Monday night that they were holding out
hope that he may have just needed solitude and sought the peace of the
outdoors.
They said they had prayed for his return and that several Boston-area
churches, a nonprofit group, and many individual volunteers had helped
with efforts to locate him.
According to State Police and the district attorney’s office, a
Boston University rowing coach spotted the body in the water at around
7:25 a.m. Tuesday.
It was the second body to be found in the Charles River in as many days.
On Monday, the body of a 62-year-old man was found at about 8:15 a.m.
near the Boston University boathouse.
See: Missing student’s family holds out hope
Authorities have said they do not
consider his death to be suspicious.
Yeah, who wants to have to do any actual work? If there isn't a suspect readily available, forget it.
--more--"
Trail must have gone cold because that is the last I've seen of it in my Boston Globe.
