Alcohol may have been factor in death of KU student who fell from roof

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Police investigate body on KU campus

Kansas University police investigate an unidentified body outside of Watkins Scholarship Hall, 1506 Lilac Lane, on the KU Campus Friday, April 24, 2009.

A preliminary coroner's report indicates alcohol was a factor in the death of a Kansas University student who fell from a scholarship hall roof last week.

Dalton Eli Hawkins, an 18-year-old Shawnee freshman, died from injuries to his head and chest after he fell from the three-story roof of Watkins Scholarship Hall, according to the report signed by Dr. Altaf Hossain, a deputy coroner.

Hossain has ruled the death an accident.

A resident director of the women's scholarship hall found Hawkins' body at 8 a.m. Friday. Hawkins lived at Ellsworth Hall, which is on Daisy Hill, near 15th and Iowa streets.

One of his fraternity brothers said last week that Hawkins went on a bus trip to Kansas City Thursday night, where there had been some drinking as the bus left Lawrence.

According to the coroner's report, a preliminary urine drug test was "presumptively positive for alcohol."

A spokeswoman for the coroner's office said on Monday a more complete autopsy report would be finished in several weeks.

Currently in Topeka, KS

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