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Boy stumbling before his death, teen says

Eaglecrest student found classmate dead, lying on bed

Ivan Moreno, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 2, 2006 at midnight

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AURORA - An Eaglecrest High School student who was found dead at an Aurora home Sunday had trouble walking and was stumbling before he passed out, according to the teenager who called police to report him dead.

Aurora police are calling the death of 16-year- old Brandon Bates suspicious, although they say there were no signs of trauma or foul play when they found him about 11:30 a.m.

The Arapahoe County Coroner's Office conducted an autopsy Monday, but said they are waiting for the toxicology results to determine a cause of death.

Benji Christiansan, a sophomore at Eaglecrest, said that when he woke up Sunday he found his classmate dead, lying on the bed across from him.

"There was nothing I could do to save him," said Christiansan, who said he only knew Bates from the times they passed each other in the school hallways.

About 4 a.m. Sunday, Christiansan said a friend brought Bates to his home in the 3800 block of South Genoa Court, telling him Bates had taken some pills and asking if Bates could sleep at his house.

According to Christiansan, Bates' friends are saying the teenager had chased the pills down with alcohol hours before he died.

Christiansan's mother, Debbie, said she wasn't home when Bates arrived because she works at night and didn't get home until about 5:40 a.m.

"So I woke up to the fire department coming to my house and my son telling me, 'I'm sorry,' " she said.

Christiansan said her son told her Bates was brought into the house through a window and was having trouble keeping his balance.

"I was panicking most of the time; I didn't know what to do," Benji Christiansan said.

Members of the school's speech and debate team struggled Monday with his death, said coach Therese Rich.

"You have no idea how hard it's been today," she said.

Bates enjoyed doing dramatic interpretations of literature for competitions, Rich said, but his classmates still thought of him as the team's clown.

Rich said Bates did a rendition this year of Prayers for Bobby, a book that chronicles a mother's grief over her gay son's suicide.

"We spent a lot of time today talking about what he accomplished in competition," Rich said.

"It's been hard on the (students) because the speech team becomes like a family."