Ex-Columbia student athlete, Jessica Fingers, was found dead in one of the university’s dorm rooms Sunday morning and her grieving mother is pointing fingers at her boyfriend.
It was a tragic discovery that has Fingers’ family grieving and angry.
The 21-year-old former Columbia student was on leave when her boyfriend, Peter Russell discovered her dead body face-up in one of the dorm rooms.
Jessica was a promising student and was on full scholarship for track when she decided to take leave without telling the university why.
It was later revealed that she suffered from a stroke, but after making a full recovery she was cleared to return back to the university.
Meanwhile, she “fell in love” with Russell, who her mother felt was a terrible influence on her from the beginning.
“I never liked him,” Jessica’s mother, Athena Fingers, said. “He influenced the decisions she made in the last few months. He wasn’t good for her.”
One of those decisions, her mother believes, was partying.
While her mother never accused the self-proclaimed tattoo artist of killing her daughter, she does believe that it was his influence on Jessica that may have led to her death.
Students from the university reported that the night before Jessica was discovered in the dorm room, there were plenty of parties going on all over campus.
“There were multiple parties, the most I’ve known about,” one student said.
It is believed that the college track star possibly overdosed on drugs and that’s why her family is blaming her death on her boyfriend.
“I tried to tell her what I thought, but she was grown,” her mother added. “I never had any problems with her. She was a typical person and she was stubborn like me.”
She went on to explain that instead of focusing on getting back to school, her daughter suddenly was obsessed with going into the city just to see Peter.
“She said she was in love,” she continued in tears. “That’s why she wanted to go into the city all the time, to visit him.”
Jessica’s cousin, Asia Folsom, agreed with Athena.
“Instead of helping her on the path of getting back into Columbia, which should have been the focus, he was taking her off that focus,” Folsom said.
Other family members were so outraged that they even threatened Peter’s life.
“F*** u peter im coming for ur life,” another one of Jessica’s cousins wrote on Facebook under the name Flacko Ty.
The Facebook post caused Russell to respond with a very troubling message.
“I can’t life without her,” Jessica’s boyfriend commented under the status. “I will save you the trouble dont worry.”
He also wrote another status that suggested he might be considering suicide.
“My life is over… shes gone so I have nothing to live for… bye,” he wrote as he referenced her girlfriend’s death.
It’s clear that everyone goes through the grieving process differently, but seeing the death of a young woman being the latest topic on Facebook just feels incredibly wrong. Not to mention the fact that when Peter explained what the status meant, his friends responded with messages like “WTF!!!”
Those three letters and a few exclamation points was all they could say about a mother losing a daughter, a best friend losing her emotional support, the world losing another bright soul.
Of course, when you talk to her mother she has much more to say about her daughter’s passing than just three little letters on a Facebook post.
“She was my sunshine,” she said. “She was a good daughter. She was the perfect child and now she is gone.”
Police are still investigating what exactly happened that night but for now they aren’t suspecting any foul play.
