Parents: Drowned teen’s autopsy shows no drugs

PHOTOGRAPHER: Lee Coleman

The parents of a 19-year-old Boston College student who drowned in Putnam Brook in March say autopsy results show their son had no narcotic drugs in his system at the time of his death.

The body of Alexander Grant was found in four feet of water under an ice shelf March 8 in Putnam Brook, less than a quarter of a mile from where he was last seen alive.

Grant, of Westchester County, who was visiting friends attending Skidmore College, was last seen at 2:15 a.m. March 6 on video surveillance tape after breaking into a medical building on Care Lane off of Church Street.

In a statement from the Grant family, the boy’s parents say they have received and reviewed the final autopsy results.

City police said last week they also had received the second round of toxicology tests from a laboratory but were not immediately releasing the details.

The statement from the family said the toxicology tests indicate that “Alex was not under the influence of narcotics on the night of his death.”

“This, of course, is entirely consistent with what we knew of our son, a kind, intelligent and thoughtful young man, a student in the honors program at one of the nation’s leading universities, who was careful in his judgements and highly predisposed against the recklessness of experimentation in the usage of chemical narcotics,” says the family statement signed by Grant’s parents, Ken and Deanna, and his sister, Brianna.

The family’s statement made no mention of alcohol, or whether the toxicology tests showed alcohol in the young man’s system.

City police did not respond to calls Tuesday night seeking comment on the toxicology report.

Grant was only wearing boxer shorts, a long-sleeved T-shirt and one sock at the time he was seen on surveillance tape in the medical building early March 6. He had on the same clothing when his body was found.

It remains a mystery what happened to Grant after he left an off-campus party hosted by Skidmore College students around 11:30 p.m. March 5 in a rented house on Church Street. Police were called to the party because of loud noise and people gathering outside the house and in the street.

Police interviewed Skidmore students who attended the party of March 5-6 but the students would not cooperate with the investigation, some of them hiring lawyers, according to police. The family in its statement implored anyone with information to come forward.