Initial reports suggest that 21-year-old Jessica Fingers has died of a drug overdose

Apr 2, 2013 06:46 GMT  ·  By
21-year-old Jessica Fingers died of a possible overdose in her college dorm room
   21-year-old Jessica Fingers died of a possible overdose in her college dorm room

A 21-year-old student has been found dead in a dorm room at Columbia University in what preliminary reports paint as a possible O.D.

According to Gothamist, Jessica Fingers was a student at the Ivy League School and was supposed to graduate a year ago, but had to take a year off due to health issues.

At 11:45 a.m. on Sunday, March 31 her lifeless body was uncovered by her boyfriend who was lying by her side when he woke up.

“My life is over... Shes gone so i have nothing to live for.. Bye. [...] I woke up and the love of my life was dead next to me,” Peter Russell wrote on Facebook.

NY Daily News wrote that Fingers was attending Columbia on a full track scholarship, and had taken time off after suffering a stroke and blood clots in January 2012.

Fingers' mother blames the girl's boyfriend for exposing her to drugs that may have caused her death.

“I never liked him. He influenced the decisions she made in the last few months. He wasn’t good for her. She said she was in love. That’s why she wanted to go into the city all of the time, to visit him,” Athena Fingers says.

“Instead of helping her on the path of getting back into Columbia, which should have been the focus, he was taking her off that focus,” adds cousin Asia Folsom.

However, Russell argued that the student had been using drugs such as methadone before meeting him, an account which is backed up by his former roommate, Thomas Meyer. Meyer describes that the couple would get high together.

“If any of u idiots knew her then u know she was doing drugs long before she met me,” Russell posted.

“The friends that Jessica had prior to Peter were a party crowd. [...] I understand that her family is grieving and they need someone to blame. But they can’t solely put her death on Peter. The two made a conscious decision to do these things,” Meyer notes.