Christopher Daniel Fu, junior in engineering from Wilmette, Ill., was found dead early Monday morning outside of Campbell Hall, 300 N. Goodwin Ave. He was found east of a fenced area outside of Campbell Hall in the parking lot close to the broadcast tower of WILL studios. His scarf and glasses were found approximately 140 feet up the tower.
Jeff
Christensen, assistant chief of University police, said that police are
investigating the death."He was on the tower. Now the question is whether it's accidental or intentional," Christensen said.
Christensen said that there are no signs of foul play, and that there were no external factors, such as ice or rain, that could've led to Fu slipping from the rails of the tower.
It is not clear when further information will be available. Crime scene technicians from the Illinois State police are assisting in the
investigation.
Fu was a member of an I-Parkour Facebook group, a group that is a part of a larger movement dedicated to clearing obstacles. Some of the more extreme parkour exercises involve jumping from building to building. Jay Reppert, junior in Engineering and friend of Fu, said parkour deals with getting from place to place as fluidly as possible.
The Parkour.com Web site, a site for the larger parkour movement, has images of people jumping from various buildings and towers and offers tutorials on "landing from height."
Police are looking into a possible connection between Fu's death and parkour, Christensen said, but he added that his affiliation does not necessarily show cause of death.
"Just because someone is a member of a Facebook group doesn't confirm anything," Christensen said.
Fu's roommates DiBenedetto, junior in LAS, and Anson Wu, sophomore in FAA, said that they had never heard of parkour and that Fu hadn't discussed his involvement in the group with them.
"He must've been like a new member," DiBenedetto said. "I don't believe he had met with any of them."
Reppert said that Fu had contacted him about practicing parkour, but the two were never able to organize a time to meet.
Fu also posted a discussion topic on the I-Parkour Facebook discussion board on Oct. 18 suggesting that members meet on weekends to practice parkour.
Reppert said that climbing up towers isn't generally a part of parkour.
"Very rarely you might try to move up a building as quickly as possible, but climbing something that tall is a completely different thing," Reppert said.
Fu's roommates said that he had become depressed starting around Thursday. Although they had tried to be supportive, he was unreceptive and gave them vague answers, they said.
"He never threatened to end his life or anything like that," DiBenedetto said.
Instead, Fu's roommates remember him as a helpful, loving person with a good heart. Although he was introverted when they first met him, they said that those who knew him cared about him a lot.
"It's a loss for us, but it's also a loss for the whole college, society," Wu said.
As of 1 p.m. today, Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup said it had been ruled that the cause of death was multiple blunt force trauma because of a fall. No further information could be released at the time.