Police give facts of freshman's death as friends and family mourn

On New Year's Day, Seth Korona and his mother left for IU -- the university Korona loved, sight unseen.\nIt was just mother, son, a green Mercury Mountaineer and 710 miles of road.\n"They had a wonderful ride together," Debra Neilson, a family friend, said. "It's a memory she's going to cherish forever."\nAfter a semester at West Chester University near his home in Marlton, New Jersey, Korona, 19, decided to transfer, looking for more of a challenge. He arranged to attend IU to study business, a lifelong dream.\nThe next time he went home, it was for his own funeral.\nThe time of his life\nKorona moved into Foster Quad Room 216 Jan. 2.\nHe instantly fit in. He was fun, easy-going, performed well in classes and never seemed stressed out, friends said.\n"He loved this school with his whole heart," said freshman Chris Vargo, one of the first people Korona met.\nKorona and Vargo both started at IU second semester and lived on the same floor. Vargo moved in a day after Korona. After meeting and attending orientation activities together, the two became friends, lifting weights together at the Student Recreational Sports Center.\nA natural athlete, Korona was captain of the Cherokee High School, N.J., swim team. He would have been head lifeguard at the Larchmont Swim Club in New Jersey this summer.\nVargo was one of Korona's tight-knit group of floormates, including freshman Matt Wattley. Wattley said Korona had a way of bringing people together.\nVargo said floormates talked with Korona about everything -- girls, parties, cars and classes. They watched TV, played video games and ate at Gresham Food Court, known to them as "The Gresh."\nAlong with stories from high school, Korona told his friends he wanted to bring his new, blue Kawasaki motorcycle to campus some day. It was at home in New Jersey.\nBack home, Korona's parents were hearing good things from their son. He was doing well in classes, getting along with his roommate and having the time of his life. He kept in touch with his parents and brother through Instant Messenger almost daily. He spoke to his parents on the phone about once a week, friends said.\nNeilson said Korona always had a smile on his face, looked like Prince William and loved IU from the start.\nThe weekend\nKorona and his friends at Foster also hung out on weekends and partied together.\nTypical weekend plans started with dinner at "The Gresh," getting ready at 10:30 p.m. and leaving an hour later, friends said. They went to parties at an apartment or a fraternity house, arriving around midnight. They drank, socialized and danced, usually until about 3 a.m. Sophomore Andy Doughty was the group's designated driver.\nThe typical night of partying would end with a stop at Steak 'n Shake and a loud return to the residence hall, friends said.\nKorona was a social drinker, but didn't like to show off, friends said.\n"Korona does not get out of control," Doughty said. "He becomes more vocal, gets louder, but not rambunctious."\nKorona drank during high school and knew his limits, Doughty said.\nHe was also conscious of the impression he was making on fraternity members, friends said, because he was rushing.\nDuring the first three weeks of the semester, Korona partied with his friends about 10 times, they said. The group typically stuck together all night.\nJan. 24, Korona and Vargo went to the Theta Chi fraternity to get on the house's rush list for "free beer" and for the following Saturday's party, Vargo said.\n'We weren't all together'\nThat Saturday is a night none of them will forget.\nBut as it began, only one thing separated the night of Jan. 27 from the others.\n"The only thing that was different that night was that we weren't all together," Doughty said.\nKorona, Doughty, freshman Scott McCoy and other friends ate at Malibu Grill restaurant early in the evening. A long wait at the restaurant caused them to miss their ride to the party, McCoy said.\nAfter dinner, Korona, Doughty and McCoy stopped by a friend's apartment and drank a few beers, McCoy said.\nWhen they returned to Foster, Vargo and a friend were leaving to go to a party at Theta Chi.\nKorona was just getting into the shower as Vargo was ready to leave, and Vargo gave him a hard time about it, he said.\n"That was the last time I really talked to him much," Vargo said.\nKorona and McCoy walked to Theta Chi, Vargo got a ride and Doughty, the usual designated driver, stayed home to do homework.\nKorona arrived at the party soon after midnight. The party, which extended through the hallways, basement and upstairs rooms of the house, was registered for as many as 600 people, IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger said.\nTheta Chi's guests were talking, dancing and enjoying the party, friends said. Guests were drinking Everclear "rush" punch and from kegs upstairs, friends said.\nKorona looked like he was having a good time at the party, McCoy said. He danced and hung out in the hallways mostly, but later went to the basement, friends said.\nVargo and other friends left the party at 2 a.m., but Korona stayed, Vargo said.\nAt about 3 a.m., Korona made his way upstairs to a fraternity member's room.\nSomeone asked if anyone wanted to do a keg stand, a hand-stand over a keg of beer while drinking from the tap, Minger said. Others had done keg stands at the party, and Korona did one shortly after 3 a.m., Minger said.\nAfter he did the keg stand, Korona was helped down from the keg and walked away.\nMinutes later, Korona fell backward and hit his head on a metal door frame, according to the IUPD.\nThe back lower-left portion of his head struck the door frame, half-way between the floor and the strike plate, where the door handle meets the frame, Minger said.\nWitnesses thought he had passed out from drinking, according to an IUPD release. He was unconscious for a few minutes, according to the IUPD.\nAfter being helped up and taken to a nearby room, Korona declined to go the hospital several times, Minger said.\nMcCoy said he saw Korona vomiting in an upstairs room, but fraternity members were taking care of him. They told McCoy they would bring him home in the morning, McCoy said.\nMcCoy said he assumed Korona drank a "bad mix" of Everclear punch and beer.\nTwo guys brought Korona back to Foster at about noon Jan. 28, freshman Ayodele Jegede, his roommate, said. They were members of Theta Chi, according to police.\n"(One of the guys) pointed out to me that I should watch him for the rest of the day and be careful what he does," Jegede said. "They said to make sure he's up and moving around."\nKorona seemed tired and complained of a headache Sunday, and spent the day in bed, Vargo said. Throughout the day, Theta Chi members called to check on Korona's condition, according to the IUPD.\nIt was Super Bowl Sunday -- and it looked like their friend had a hangover. They checked on him several times, but Korona told them to turn off the light and go away, friends said.\nWhen his condition didn't improve the next day, Korona's friends demanded answers. When Korona couldn't explain large bruises under his arms and why he was holding the back of his head, Vargo called an ambulance.\nDoughty rode with Korona to Bloomington Hospital Jan. 29.\nDoctors initially feared meningitis. But after culture tests ruled out the disease, doctors discovered Korona had a skull fracture. At the hospital, Korona slipped into a coma.\nFamily and friends prayed together at Korona's bedside.\nHe was taken off life-support Feb. 4.\nMonroe County Coroner David Toumey said Korona died of bleeding in the brain caused by the skull fracture. Toumey said if doctors had known immediately that Korona had sustained a blow to the head, they might have been able to do more to treat him.\n'A friend waiting'\nAt his funeral Feb. 8 in New Jersey, Korona's casket was draped with an IU flag he had sent to his father. A West Chester hat, IU hat and his life-guard jersey and whistle sat on top.\nAbout 800 people attended, including Vargo and Wattley.\nAt the funeral, Korona's friends from New Jersey wanted to meet his IU friends. They knew nothing about what had happened to their friend and hoped Vargo and Wattley would bring answers. It wasn't easy telling them they had none, Wattley said.\nSince his death, moving on hasn't been easy for Korona's friends. A toast offered to Korona caused Vargo to break down at a recent party.\n"I'd start thinking about Seth," Vargo said. "My eyes started watering. He was always with us."\nIn three weeks on campus, Korona impacted many lives. About 120 people attended a memorial gathering for him the day he died.\nVargo said his friend will bring him comfort.\n"Death is less scary knowing I have a friend waiting," he said.\nMeanwhile, Korona's family has adopted his Foster floormates into their own family, Neilson said.\nThe floor has taken Korona's 15-year old brother Elliott, his only sibling, under their wings.\n"His brother has a whole floor full of brothers now," Doughty said.\nKorona's friends from Foster plan to celebrate his July 28 birthday at the New Jersey shore with Korona's hometown buddies.\nWattley had promised Korona he'd go fishing with him this summer. Now he plans to take Korona's father, he said.\nFriends said they've felt the void left by their friend's passing.\nAt Texas Roadhouse restaurant, on the night doctors decided there was nothing they could do for Korona, a waitress pulled an extra chair up to the booth where eight friends were seated. They looked at the empty chair.\n"It was a hard reminder," McCoy said. "We looked at each other stunned and knew what each of us was thinking." \nSeth is really gone.\nOn the return flight from Korona's funeral in New Jersey, Vargo said there was an empty seat next to him -- the only one on the plane.