Body of Branford student found

New York police officials confirmed on Fri., Dec. 17 that they had found the body of missing Yale senior Greg Norris, BR '01. A Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) track foreman had discovered Norris' body on the Bronx shoreline on Tues., Nov. 16, but it took a month before officials could identify the body.

Ellen Borakove, a spokesperson for the New York City medical examiner, said that the examiner's office was not to blame for the month-long wait. She explained, "Nobody had notified the New York City Missing Persons Unit that [Norris] was missing from Connecticut." She said that once the Unit received word of the Norris case, the examiner's office at once requested dental records from the family on Fri., Dec.17 to "identify the body found in the Bronx." The MTA foreman had found the body at the basin of where the Harlem and Hudson rivers converge around West 225th Street in the Bronx, according to Borakove.

The Yale Police Department (YPD) has spearheaded the six-week search for Norris' whereabouts. Administrators at the YPD and Yale's Office of Public Affairs are currently on vacation until Mon., Jan.3, and were not available for comment.

Borakove said on Tues., Dec. 28 that tests determining the cause and time of Norris' death will take about another week. In a letter sent to Branford students on Tues., Dec.21, Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, stated, "Police report there were no signs of foul play."

Norris, a native of Omaha, Neb., was last seen on Halloween when he voluntarily checked into the Yale-New Haven Hospital after being picked up by New Haven police at 5:10 a.m. that day. He had been found allegedly drunk and wandering the tracks of the New Haven train station. Before checking himself into the hospital, he placed a collect call to his parents at 4:30 a.m. from Union Station. Unfortunately, his parents missed the call and their answering machine picked up. Norris was permitted to check himself out of the hospital at 2:25 p.m., and was not seen alive again.

Ken Best, media coordinator at the Yale-New Haven Hospital, said that federal privacy laws prevent him from commenting on Norris' treatment at the hospital. "[Norris] came in, was treated, and left," he said. "Everything else is private information." The Yale-New Haven Hospital does not maintain the same type of communication system with Yale residential college Deans and Masters as that of University Health Services located on Hillhouse Avenue. Best said, "We deal with patients. If someone comes in as a college student [and is over 18 years old], he is treated as an adult responsible for his own treatment, who makes his own decisions. We make exceptions for minors." However, according to Best, the hospital tries to help its patients contact family members if they wish to do so.

It has been been alleged that Norris suffered from depression and had left suicide notes in his room addressed to his parents and his sister, Carrie, a sophomore at the University of Arizona. However, his mother Alice Norris recently told the Omaha World-Herald [12/21/99], "We don't know what happened. But we don't think it was self-inflicted."

Norris' body was released to his family on Sat., Dec.18 for funeral services held at the Christ Community Church in Omaha on Thurs., Dec. 23. His mother also told the World-Herald that the painful information provided relief from waiting anxiously for news of her son. "We have closure now," she said.

Thomas Jovin, a grieving father of another Yalie whose life was taken away too soon, offered his sympathies in the New Haven Register [12/28/99]. Jovin had recently visited New Haven to be briefed on the police investigation of his daughter's, former Davenport senior Suzanne Jovin, murder. "Our family was deeply shocked by the news of Gregory Norris' death," he said. "Our thoughts are with his family and we wish them strength and fortitude in dealing with the loss of their son."

Norris was the 1996 valedictorian of Burke High School in Omaha. At Burke, he had started a mentoring program for local junior high school students and had garnered awards in Spanish and math. At Yale, he was a member of the Branford College Council and participated in intramural sports sporadically. He also worked on Sunday and Monday nights in the circulation desk at Cross Campus Library. Branford Master Steven Smith confirmed that the University will hold a memorial service for Norris early in the spring semester.

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