Family seeks answers in Ohio student's death

• Autopsy performed but cause of death pending
• Family insist he was not a drug addict
• Friends contacted police after student failed to meet a friend Saturday

OXFORD, Ohio -- The death of a 21-year-old Miami University student whose body was found Monday is being investigated as a possible heroin overdose, Oxford police said.

An autopsy was performed Tuesday on Ainis "Andy" Supronas, but the cause of death is pending. Butler County coroner's officials did not know when the results of toxicology and other tests would be completed.

Supronas' family was in shock Tuesday as they gathered at their Mason home before traveling to Oxford to find some answers.

Police, they say, are leaping too fast to the conclusion that Supronas, a gifted athlete and swimmer whose medals and plaques line the shelves in his parents' basement, may have died from drugs.

He was not an addict, they insisted, and was far too healthy to get mixed up in a drug as lethal as heroin. He didn't have needle injection marks on his arms or legs, family members said.

"He was not a junkie," said his brother, Vince Supronas, 25, of Chicago. "That's not him. There are too many things that don't add up. He knew way too well about prescription drugs and nutritional stuff."

Supronas had undergone a thorough medical exam by his doctor on Thursday as he sought and received a prescription for pills to help him focus better in school, his family said.

Authorities declined to say if they found heroin, other drugs and/or paraphernalia in Supronas' apartment when they went there on a welfare check just before 9 a.m. Monday.

Friends contacted police after not hearing from the software engineering major, who failed to meet a friend near the University of Cincinnati on Saturday.

One of his friends went to his apartment early Monday, peered in the window and spied what appeared to be him lying in bed, a blanket pulled over his head, his family said. Supronas' phone flashed when it rang on the nightstand but went unanswered. A maintenance crew let police in.

Supronas, a junior, would have turned 22 on Thursday. He lived alone in the apartment, for which his father paid the rent so his son could live close to campus, family members said.

University officials announced Supronas' death in a message to students Monday after receiving permission to do so from his parents, but the statement did not discuss the possible heroin angle at a time when police across the Cincinnati area and Northern Kentucky are seeing a surge in its use.

A Miami spokeswoman, Claire Wagner, declined to discuss the specifics of Sopronas' death or say if the university would address the dangers of heroin with the student body.

Students can receive counseling through the dean of students office, she said, and school officials will check in with his friends to make sure they have all the support they need.

Officials at Phi Delta Theta also were offering support and counseling to Supronas' fraternity brothers, said Sean Wagner, associate executive vice president of the national organization.

Drug paraphernalia, such as diabetic needles, were found in his room Monday, the family said authorities told them, but they believe those needles belonged to someone else.

And while Vince Supronas said he was not naive enough to think his brother never experimented with recreational drugs, he was adamant that his brother was not a regular user.

"There's a lot of (questions) that need to be answered," his brother said. "You don't become a junkie in 24 hours. He was clean on Thursday. He had a physical examination done, blood tested, heart tested, he was healthy."

The family moved to the U.S. from Lithuania nine years ago so they could give their sons a better life, said their father, Grazvydas Supronas.

Cameron Radis, a Miami junior who is president of the Alpha Chapter of Phi Delta Theta, described Supronas as a committed member of the fraternity who served on the executive board when he joined in 2010.

As a junior, Supronas lived outside the fraternity house, which is reserved for freshmen and sophomores.

Radis said he saw Supronas about a week ago and exchanged small talk. Nothing seemed different about him lately and there was no indication that he might be using drugs.

"That's what came as such a shock. None of us really noticed any change in his behavior," Radis said.

Supronas worked nights at a bar, which friends identified as The Woods in Oxford's Uptown section. He was recently upbeat after acing an important test, his family said.

"Now," his father said, "everything is broken, all the wishes, all the beliefs."