Investigation Continues Into Death of FDU Visitor

A Sparta man who was found unresponsive during a visit to and later died may not have registered with campus security as required by school regulations.

Patrick A. Parisi Jr., 21, of Sparta was found unresponsive Wednesday afternoon in a friend's dorm room and later pronounced dead at Morristown Hospital.

Authorities are continuing the investigation and have not said what caused Parisi's death. Capt. Jeffrey Paul, of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, in an email said the cause and manner of Parisi's death are still pending.

The university's guest policy requires overnight visitors to register with the office of Public Safety, and provide their permanent address and phone number. A university spokesman would not say whether Parisi had registered, citing the ongoing investigation.

"We heard that he wasn't signed in, so the school didn't know he was here," said Rachel Tucker, a sophomore who lives on campus.

Tucker said she didn't think that unregistered visitors presented a safety issue on campus. "I feel secure here. It's not a big issue with people."

On Friday, two cleaning service trucks were parked in front of York Hall, the co-ed dorm where Parisi had been a guest in a third-floor suite that houses six male students. The suite was cordoned off by law enforcement, students said, and was in the process of being cleaned out.

The students who lived there had been reassigned to other on-campus housing, according to another third-floor resident who declined to give his name. The dorm houses mostly sophomores and juniors, he said.

"It was a shocker," he said. "I was out Wednesday and when I came back there were a bunch of police and Public Safety officers in the hallway, shooing us away.

"It's a shame, the loss of a young life."

Kevin McCiernan, a sophomore who also lives down the hall from the suite, didn't think that foul play was involved in Parisi's death. He said that the students who lived there "didn't seem like that kind of group."