Did Rutgers sex video student seek help before suicide?

The Rutgers University freshman who apparently killed himself after learning his roommate had allegedly broadcast webcam images of him having sex with another man may have sought advice from a gay community bulletin board before choosing his final course of action.

Tyler Clementi, 18, jumped off the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22 after parking his car on the Jersey side and leaving his wallet and university ID on a pedestrian walkway.

His body, which was pulled from the Hudson River yesterday, was identified today by the New York City medical examiner's office. Clementi committed suicide, the medical examiner ruled. The cause of death was drowning and blunt impact injuries on his torso.

Middlesex authorities brought up the possibility of additional charges this afternoon. "We will be making every effort to assess whether bias played a role in the incident," said Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan in a statement.

Earlier, the website Gawker.com posted a thread from the justusboys website (NSFW) titled "college roommate spying . . . " In it, a writer identified only as cit2mo recounts a scenario similar to that described by prosecutors and mentions he has reported the incident to university officials.

"[S]o the other night I had a guy over," wrote cit2mo on Sept. 21. "I had talked to my roommate that afternoon and he had said it would be fine w/him. I checked his twitter today. he tweeted that I was using the room (which is obnoxious enough), AND that he went into somebody else's room and remotely turned on his webcam and saw me making out with a guy. given the angle of the webcam I can be confident that that was all he could have seen.

"My question is what to do next?"

It is unclear whether Clementi wrote the message, which goes on for several more paragraphs. But the timing of the post coincides with the events that began to unravel Sept. 19 on Rutgers' Piscataway campus, about 45 miles north of Philadelphia.

Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and another student, Molly Wei, were accused by Middlesex County prosecutors last week of cyber-voyeurism in illegally taping Clementi on Sept. 19 having "a sexual encounter" and posting the material online. Ravi and Wei, both 18, were charged with invasion of privacy.

On his Twitter account, Ravi wrote about turning on his computer by remote on Sept. 19 to watch Clementi:

"Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went to molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."

In a later Twitter posting, he apparently invited others to watch with him:

"Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it's happening again."

iChat allows its users to share live audio and video while instant messaging over computers.

In the "college roommate spying" post dated Sept 21, the writer is by turns cautious, angry, and worried about the repercussions if he reports the roommate to campus authorities.

"I could be more careful next time . . . be sure to turn the cam away . . .

"I'm kind of pissed at him (rightfully so I think, no?)

"it would be nice to get him in trouble but idk [I don't know] if I have enough to get him in trouble, I mean . . . he never saw anything pornographic

"I feel like the only thing the school might do is find me another roommate, probably with me moving out . . . and I probably would just end up with somebody worse than him . . .

"The other thing is I that don't wanna report him and then end up with nothing happening except him getting pissed at me ..."

About two hours later, cit2mo writes his roommate had been watching the encounter with other people.

". . .so I feel like it was "look at what a fag my roommate is."

Another person comments on cit2mo's posting, saying the roommate's actions were illegal. "There's an expectation of privacy in your room. Get that guy arrested or at least expelled."

But cit2mo writes back: "...revenge has never worked well for me. as much as i would love to pour pink paint over all his stuff. . . that would just let him win."

In subsequent postings, cit2mo writes he has reported the incident to the dorm's RA or resident advisor and wrote an email about the events to the RA and other school officials.

The next day, Clementi apparently created a Facebook account. On it he posted two things:

"Jumping off the gw bridge sorry."

and "what do you get when you kiss a guy, you get enough germs to catch pneumonia."

The Facebook page was taken down late last night.

Ravi, of Plainsboro, was released on $25,000 bail Tuesday. Wei, of Princeton, was released on her own recognizance Monday.

News of Clementi's death spurred outrage on the Rutger's campus.

"The notion that video of Tyler doing what he was doing can be considered a spectacle is just heinous," said Jordan Gochman, 19, of Jackson, who didn't know Clementi. "It's intolerant, it's upsetting, it makes it seem that being gay is something that is wrong and can be considered laughable.

Another student said Clementi fell victim to a double-standard.

"Had he been in bed with a woman, this would not have happened," said Rutgers student Lauren Felton, 21, of Warren. "He wouldn't have been outed via an online broadcast, and his privacy would have been respected and he might still have his life."

Clementi was a violinist whose life revolved around music, said Ed Schmiedecke, the recently retired music director at Ridgewood High School, from which Clementi graduated this year.

"He was a terrific musician, and a very promising, hardworking young man," Schmiedecke said.

About 100 people gathered Wednesday night for a vigil on campus. They lay on the ground and chanted slogans like, "We're here, we're queer, we're not going home."

Rutgers University President Richard McCormick wrote in a letter to the campus, "If the charges are true, these actions gravely violate the university's standards of decency and humanity."