Man dies in climb to girlfriend’s apartment

PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Cook

A former Glenville man died Monday after he fell three stories trying to climb to his girlfriend’s apartment in Worcester, Mass.

Police said Jeffrey Powers, 22, who moved to Worcester in February, was climbing up the outside decks of a Worcester apartment building just before 4 a.m. Saturday when part of a deck railing gave way.

The doors to the building were locked. Powers and his girlfriend had some type of disagreement earlier, but that was not described as serious, Worcester Police Detective Capt. Edward J. McGinn Jr. said Wednesday.

There was also evidence that Powers had been drinking, McGinn said.

“He did manage to get up to the third balcony,” McGinn said. “Had the baluster not released, he would have arrived safely.”

Powers’ girlfriend, a student at the local Clark University, was home at the time, McGinn said. She was making her way to the front of the apartment when she heard a thud. She then went out and saw Powers lying on the concrete slab below.

Help was summoned immediately, but Powers died early Monday, police said.

Powers met his girlfriend, Emma Gabriele, through mutual friends last October at a Halloween party, his father, John Powers, said Wednesday. He moved to Worcester in February after getting a job with a machine company there and to be with her. John Powers said he could see the level of commitment she had to his son.

He was a 2004 graduate of Scotia-Glenville High School and had made Eagle Scout in 2003.

“He was an awfully generous guy. He helped everybody,” his father said. “His most famous quote was when he met his girlfriend. She asked what he was good at. He said he was good at life. He was good at life.”

Jeffrey Powers’ organs were donated, helping six people, John Powers said.