Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Another UMass Death



So no, I do not have the email UMass/Amherst sent out this morning, and no I do not have "official" confirmation from either the DA's office or APD.

But I have confirmed with enough reliable sources that indeed another UMass student (a 20-year-old male) has died, w-a-y too young.

UPDATE 4:00 PM

Amherst Police and Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Office of Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan are investigating the death of University of Massachusetts student Eric L. Sinacori, 20, who was found off-campus at his 1040 North Pleasant St., Amherst apartment, on Friday, Oct. 4.

No foul play is suspected, although the official cause of death has yet to be determined by the medical examiner’s office.

Mary Carey – Communications Director

#####
UPDATE:  2:00 PM
To the Campus Community:

It is with sadness that I write to inform you of the death of Eric
Sinacori. Eric passed away over the weekend in his off campus apartment.

Eric, 20, was from Whitehouse Station, New Jersey and a third year
student majoring in Kinesiology. University support staff has been in
direct contact with Eric’s family.

During difficult times like this we can help each other by noticing and
acknowledging the ongoing mourning and readjustment process that will
certainly take place and referring impacted students, staff and faculty
to any one of these resources for support or consultation:

Center for Counseling and Psychological Health
(413) 545-2337,127 Hills North

Office of Religious and Spiritual Life
(413) 545-9642,302 Student Union

Dean of Students Office
(413) 545-2684,227 Whitmore

Faculty and Staff Assistance Program
(413) 545-0350,Ground Floor, UHS Building

We extend our sincere condolences to Eric’s family and his friends.

Sincerely,

Enku Gelaye
Interim Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students Student Affairs and Campus
Life

UPDATE 2:45 PM
According to Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone "we do not have an investigation going on ."

13 comments:

Walter Graff said...

It's a sad loss of a young life. Mr.
Sinacori had been in trouble with drugs in the past. My prayers are with his family.

Anonymous said...

Walter why don't you pray for yourself, you need it more.

Anonymous said...

What the hell is wrong with you Walter that you have to point that out? If you care enough to pray for his family you would think about them instead of yourself.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anon 6:03 p.m.

I appreciate the sentiment, but it's too much to expect some grace, tact, and delicacy from the commenters on this blog, especially from Walter.

The commenters make Larry look like Alistair Cooke.

Anonymous said...

Sinacori had been in trouble with drugs in the past
and you this how and why do we need to know it walter...you are as bad as kelley

Anonymous said...

Walter is right though... I knew Eric since before high school and he was just a good kid who got mixed up in the wrong shit and that's probably why things happened the way they did. I don't see it as insensitive, the guy was just trying to offer some insight on the situation

d said...

How many more UMass students have to die before either a Federal Grand Jury and/or the state legislature decides to look into student life at that campus?

Each individual death they can explaina and avoid responsibility for -- fine. But collectively, there are a lot of dead kids, a lot of destroyed lives, and that's of the ones that didn't die.

Dr. Ed said...

I knew Eric since before high school and he was just a good kid who got mixed up in the wrong shit and that's probably why things happened the way they did

When a woman is murdered by her boyfriend, our response is that "we need to prevent this from happening to anyone else."

OK, what is going to be done to prevent this from happening to anyone else?

What resources are there for young men like this? I can't speak to ARHS or the town itself, but I can to UMass and the level of support for men on that campus is about the same as the level of support for gays & lesbians in Iran.

Like much of higher education today, UMass hates men. UMass is a hostile environment where male students are very much not supported, anything that would elsewhere be considered traditionally masculine is viewed as threatening and dangerous behavior, and I'm serious about the need for a Federal Grand Jury.

The one consistent thread in the entire Division of Student Affairs, from Enku on down, is that men are evil -- that white heterosexual men are particularly evil.

They oppress men, not support them. From flagrant sexual harassment (I once had a female administrator chasing me through Goodell, insisting I go to a bar with her) to fabricating false threats of violence, that's how male students on that campus are treated.

And what does the Dean of Student's Office have for off-campus & graduate students -- a socially awkward gay male whose judgment I don't trust because of past situations of which I have personal knowledge. Above and beyond that, even Larry refers to Enku as the Dean of Discipline, not of Students -- everyone who cared about students has retired and all they are worried about now is punishment.

The incompetent schmucks at CCPH? I'd consider sending someone to them along the lines of sending a Black friend to a Klan rally -- and I'd do neither.

The Men's Center -- oh, wait, they don't have one, they only have for women - the EveryWomen's Center. So much for Title IX...

Even assuming that he didn't get caught in the ACT snare (at which point it would be all over) there really is no place on that campus to help "a good kid who got mixed up in the wrong shit."

And he is dead. Dr. Ed suggests that it is time for the same passion that I saw when a woman was murdered on the streets of Northampton and for people to demand that soemthing be done to prevent this from happening to anyone else.

Dr. Ed said...

One other thing -- I do not mean more of the substance abuse gestapo stuff, Planet UMass already has more than enough of that already -- and it's not working, is it?

When a woman was murdered outside the courthouse, we didn't say we need to build more courthouses, did we?

Look at what has been built over the past 20 years -- we have an entire network of people & programs to help women get out of abusive relationships and to get their lives back together.

That's what I mean.

Someone needs to stomp on UMass and tell them that men are human beings too, that their male students are important and that UMass had damn well better start treating them as such.

And to the feminists (and Larry) I say one thing: think of your daughters -- I know you love them. We are on the verge of loosing an entire generation of young men, and that involves your daughters because they are going to be involved with men -- and the man or men they become involved with are going to be coming out of this lost generation.

Maybe he'll marry her, maybe he'll just get her pregnant -- maybe she'll get lucky and find someone really nice, I hope so, but think of everyone else's daughters and how few "really nice" young men there are amongst this lost generation.

Yes, I, too, am routinely disgusted by the childish sophomoric antics of these young men and yes there are things I would like to say to them. but then there were things I'd like to have said to women who were in abusive relationships. Instead, I patiently said "I thought you told me you didn't like it when..."

Why should the Town of Amherst spend its own money trying to do things for the young college-aged males who reside in town (i.e. off campus)? Well, one such young man is now dead, is that a reason????

Lsdies, even if you hate men, you do love your daughters, and you do want them happy, don't you?

Anonymous said...

To Walter Graff & Anonymous, I am Eric's mom. I am waiting to find out how my son died. It appears that you have an idea how he died; perhaps you both work for the Mass. medical examiner's office and you can enlighten me? If not, please keep your speculation to yourself and honor my son's memory if you have a conscience at all. And, to Anonymous, you state that you know Eric for years; why don't you come forward with your name and call me to tell me all that you know you coward.

Comments left publicly while I am mourning my only child is completely insensitive and your speculative info unfounded. As far as him being in trouble with drugs in the past, why don't you read further into that article. In fact, Mr. Anonymous, it was probably your crap that was planted there which is why you hide behind 'anonymous'. A 20 yr old passes away and immediately it must be drugs. You all need to grow a heart.

As to Dr. Ed, well, you just severely need help as you are clearly demented.

Jay said...

Seriously, who are you guys to say that because he's been in trouble for drugs in the past that the cause of death is DEFINITIVELY due to drugs. Like Ms Sinacori said, you must work in the medical examiners office if you claim to know such information...

Whether it was due to drugs or not is not the issue here and doesn't change the fact that Eric was a great person and a great friend. Have some fucking respect for him and especially his family during such a tough time.

You guys must be some real lowlifes sitting on your high horses behind anonymity passing judgement. You guys know nothing about Eric and the great person he was. You cant simply define him by a police report you dug up on internet archives, you scumbags.

My sincere condolences and prayers go out to you, Mrs. Sinacori and to your family as well. I had only met Eric late last spring, but we hit it off and had quickly become great friends. There was definitely something special about him and the way he always looked out for his friends. Pay no mind to these "anonymous" people and their mindless opinions/judgments...

J

Larry Kelley said...

But she should pay mind to you, also pretty much "anonymous"?

Doug McVay said...

The Boston Globe has now revealed that Eric had been turned by *campus police* into a confidential informant after being busted for drugs - because another student who had also been a CI for the campus cops snitched him out. The article from the Boston Globe about his death, with a badly written and rather misleading headline, is at http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/09/27/heroin-takes-life-flagship-campus-umass-did-university-enough/KeUcRPH2VyQWmI0lhii01K/story.html