Editor's Note: Gainesville Police found the body of a UF student who committed suicide earlier this month. We reported otherwise in Monday's Alligator.
A UF student committed suicide in his home on Southwest Seventh Street a little more than a week ago.
The 19-year-old man's roommate found him on the floor with a plastic bag over his head and immediately called the police, said Gainesville Police Department spokesman Lt. Keith Kameg. When GPD responded to the scene, the man was unresponsive, Kameg said.
Police are confident that the death was a suicide, Kameg added.
"He took his own life," Kameg said.
The man had sent an e-mail to his roommate in which he wrote of his intentions to kill himself, Kameg said. A container of helium was hooked to the plastic bag around the man's head, and a bottle was found on a nearby table.
Police believe the bottle may have contained cyanide, and the poison could have played a role in the man's death, Kameg said.
Police will not know for sure whether the cyanide was involved or not until toxicology tests come back next month, he added. Kameg said he will release more information about the man today.
