University Times

College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate John Solot, 25, committed suicide March 7 by jumping out a 35th floor Cathedral of Learning window sometime between 5:45 and 6 a.m., according to city and campus police and the Allegheny County coroner's office.

Pitt custodian Francis Fuhrer found the body shortly after 6 a.m. near the east side of the Cathedral, facing Heinz Chapel. Fuhrer notified a Cathedral security guard, who called campus police. Pitt police arrived minutes later, and promptly notified city police. "Investigators from city homicide and our investigators got together and, based on what we found on the 35th floor and all the other information available to us, we agreed that it was an apparent suicide," said Gary Moses, campus police assistant police chief.

After conducting an autopsy, the coronor's office concurred.

According to Moses, Solot left behind "various writings on a chalkboard" on the 35th floor, indicating that he had taken his own life. "Also, you have to look at the condition of the room where it occurred. There was no sign of any type of a disturbance in the room at all," Moses said.

Moses said Solot probably entered the Cathedral early on the morning of his death. On most weekdays, the building opens at 5:30 a.m. and closes at 11 p.m. "We know the body wasn't there at around 5:40 a.m., when someone walked by that area," Moses said.

According to Fuhrer, Solot was gripping either a cane "or maybe a thick piece of wire" over his head. But Moses disagreed. "He [Solot] was not carrying or holding onto anything," the assistant police chief said. "His hands were loosely wrapped with a headband, and it was stretched out of shape, probably because of the fall." Moses confirmed that campus police had had "some incidents" with Solot in the past. But he declined to elaborate, saying that Solot's family had requested that public information on the death be kept to a minimum.

"The only people that this affects are the family, really. If it's a crime of violence, then obviously it affects the whole University and you put as much information out there as you can," Moses said.

— Bruce Steele