Police give more details on death of former SU student
Syracuse police located the body of former Syracuse University student Philip Alcott at 8:15 p.m. Saturday at 1235 Old Stonehouse Road, said Sgt. Tom Connellan of the Syracuse Police Department. Old Stonehouse Road is just off Nottingham Road, approximately two miles from the entrance to South Campus.
Alcott’s death has been ruled a suicide, but the exact cause of death has not yet been released, Connellan said. Information about the cause of death will be released after the autopsy is completed. There is no indication of criminal activity, he said.
Alcott, 22, was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and a former student in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. Alcott, who enrolled at SU in fall 2009 but did not return to campus this academic year, was a Syracuse resident. The location where Alcott’s body was found was not the location of his residence, Connellan said.
This is a ‘very private and very painful matter for the family,’ said Connellan, who expressed a wish that the community would respect the family.
Because Alcott retained ties to the campus, Thomas Wolfe, senior vice president and dean of student affairs, said the SU community wanted to reach out to support the Alcott family and the students who knew him.
‘We’re reaching out to all the communities where he spent time when he was a student here,’ said Wolfe, who sent an e-mail Sunday afternoon to SU students, faculty and staff about Alcott’s death.
Alcott is still listed as a student in SU’s student directory system. Wolfe said he was not sure why.
The Counseling Center, Hendricks Chapel and the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program are available for those around campus who need support.
Eddie Banks-Crosson, director of fraternity and sorority affairs at SU, said the SAE and SU community was available to support those who knew Alcott.
‘Philip Alcott was a member of the Syracuse community as well as our Greek family,’ Banks-Crosson said in an e-mail. ‘I ask that the members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity be given the privacy and respect that they deserve during their time of loss. Syracuse University and the Greek community stands with and ready to support them.’
A previous version of this article appeared on Feb. 28, 2011.
Published on February 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride
