Man found dead in frat house near Cal campus

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- Police are investigating after a 20-year-old man was found dead at a fraternity near UC Berkeley on Sunday.

Police said they responded to a report of an unresponsive man at 12:09 p.m. at 2728 Bancroft Way, which is block from Cal Memorial Stadium.

The address is listed as the home of the Zeta Psi fraternity on Facebook, just outside of the Berkeley campus.

Members of the fraternity are not talking. Police say the male was found in one of the rooms upstairs inside the fraternity house.

Officers say the man is not a member of Zeta Psi and not a student at UC Berkeley. They say he was one of the many attendees at the party thrown at the fraternity house Saturday night.

The death is currently classified as "suspicious," and Lt. Ed Spiller said homicide detectives are investigating the incident.

"We're erring on the side of caution," Spiller said of the classification. He said police haven't ruled out drugs or alcohol as possible factors in the man's death.

Spiller said they were not able to say how long the man had been dead before police arrived.

The man was found face down and according to the blog Berkeleyside, a witness says vomit was found around the man's mouth.

Zeta Psi is not officially recognized by the university.

UC Berkeley students ABC7 News spoke with say Zeta Psi regularly throws parties, which can often get very large.

"When it's at its peak, it can be anywhere from 500 to 700 to something around there at its peak. Its got a lot of space in there, so it's one of the best buildings for parties, for sure," Harrison Wilfley said.

"Wow, I'm still kind of shocked a little bit, a little puzzled about it now, but it's crazy man. Good thing it wasn't a student though, but still the fact that someone died on this campus so close to the stadium, so close to the center up the campus, yeah it's devastating," Arthur Wainwright said.

The man's body was transferred to the Alameda County Coroner's office, which will release the man's identity once the family has been notified.

ABC7 News reached out to the national office of Zeta Psi by email and they had no comment.

There have been no formal citations issued to the fraternity for parties at the house, but Spiller said Berkeley police have responded to the location in the past.

Bay City News contributed to this story.