The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

August 7, 2008

MSU student dies after boozy night

ST. PAUL — The Ramsey County medical examiner’s office will autopsy a 21-year-old Minnesota State University student who died after celebrating his cousin's birthday with a night of heavy drinking.

Peter Sand of Zumbrota was found dead Tuesday morning in the living room of his cousin’s home near Hamline University in St. Paul, said St. Paul police. Sand would have been a junior this month at MSU in Mankato.

St. Paul police spokesman Peter Panos says no crime is suspected in the death. He noted that everyone involved in the case was of legal drinking age.

Sand was in St. Paul on Monday to join his cousin and another person. Panos says after Sand had too much to drink, the others put him to bed in the living room.

When the others woke up, they found Sand was not responsive. Paramedics were called, but Sand was already dead.

Sand’s brother Ryan Gunhus of Rochester told the Rochester Post-Bulletin that Sand was on medication to quit smoking and was taking a dietary supplement to lose fat and build lean muscle.

Sand’s death is at least the fifth involving alcohol to strike young adults in Minnesota college towns since last fall.

In October, Amanda Jax, a former MSU student celebrating her 21st birthday, died after a night of heavy drinking at a Mankato bar. Jax had a blood-alcohol content of about 0.46 percent — nearly six times the legal limit for driving.

A month later, MSU students Rissa Amen-Reif, 22, of Eden Prairie, was killed and friend Corinne Overstake, 21, of Loretto, Minn., was seriously injured after drinking and being struck by a car on Third Avenue after getting lost. Amen-Reif’s blood-alcohol reading was .06 at the time of the crash, which happened about an hour after they had walked away from a sorority party at a bar nearly two miles away.

Tony Lee Miller, 22, died in his North Mankato apartment from alcohol poisoning after drinking heavily in January. The body of the South Central College graduate was found by a friend checking his Koppen Gardens apartment.

In mid-December, Winona State University student Jenna Foellmi’s body was found in an off-campus apartment in what police called a “classic case of binge drinking.”

In early January, Brian Threet, 20, of Farmington, who was about to re-enroll at St. Cloud State University, was found dead after a night of partying and drinking games in St. Cloud.

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