Cambridge Police Department spokesman Frank D. Pasquarello said last year that no foul play was suspected in the death and that it appeared that Fonseca took his own life.
Fonseca’s death came only one year after the suicide of Marian H. Smith ’04, also a Winthrop resident.
The medical examiner’s death certificate says Fonseca died by inhaling starter fluid, although the certificate states that the death was an accident.
“I think that it’s pretty clear” that the death was a suicide, said Jukay Hsu ’06, Fonseca’s roommate, who first discovered the death.
“It really hit me just last semester,” said Hsu, who transferred to Harvard in the spring of 2004. “It was easier to just try to move on, especially since I was only here for three weeks when it happened. I had to catch up on my classes, get involved. It was too hard to think about it then.”
Odell said, “I wish he were still here. He was one of the most entertaining and talented people I knew.”
—Staff writer May Habib can be reached at habib@fas.harvard.edu.