Dec. 22: String of deaths in college-age women tied to alcohol

The death of a 20-year-old Winona State University student whose body was found in an off-campus apartment represents a "classic case of binge drinking," the city's police chief said Friday. It's also the latest in a string of deaths among college-age women in southern Minnesota that were attributed to alcohol.

Jenna Foellmi, of Brownsville, Minn., died last week after steadily drinking for more than 12 hours with friends, said Chief Frank Pomeroy. Police were called to the apartment early Dec. 14, where they found her body.

The Winona County medical examiner on Friday classified the cause of death as acute alcohol poisoning but added that he was not obligated to release her blood-alcohol content.

Medical examiner Thomas Retzinger, however, said it was a "level not compatible with life."

Pomeroy added that Foellmi had drunk large amounts of alcohol, starting before noon and continuing past midnight.

He also said his department is deciding whether to charge one or more people with supplying alcohol to the underage woman.

However, Pomeroy said, "personal responsibility" has to be emphasized in cases such as this.

Foellmi's death happened because "she was going to get smashed [after] she had a tough quarter at school," Pomeroy said, "And no one stepped in to stop that."

Foellmi was drinking at private "bring-your-own-bottle" parties, the chief said.

At one of those parties, Pomeroy said, Foellmi participated in a drinking game called "Beer Pong."

The rules of Beer Pong vary, but generally involve players trying to bounce a ping-pong ball across a table and into other players' cups of beer. As a ball lands in a cup, the player or players on the receiving end have to drink the beer. One side wins when all their opponents' cups are empty.

Foellmi, a 2006 honors graduate of Caledonia High School in far southeastern Minnesota, was a sophomore majoring in biochemistry and cell molecular biology at Winona State, her family said.

She belonged to SADD

Her time growing up in Caledonia was filled with much of what makes a rewarding start to life. She was a member of the prom and homecoming courts, was a member of the National Honor Society and was a wrestling team manager.

Her death notice in the Winona Daily News also noted that she was a member of SADD -- Students Against Destructive Decisions -- a youth version of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Caledonia High School's website says SADD is "a group of committed teens who want to make healthy choices for themselves and support their friends."

That irony was not lost on Caledonia High School Principal Ron Helmers, who described Foellmi as an active SADD member. "I didn't really have to worry about her at all," he said.

Soon after Foellmi's death, Helmers said, a teacher approached him and said: "You know, we teach about drinking and driving, but we really don't teach about drinking and dying."

At Winona State, she was on the dean's list her first semester. This past spring, she and other Winona State students went on a church mission trip to Africa, and she had a school-related trip to Australia in her plans.

"One particular evening does not define her whole life," Kate Foellmi said of her daughter, the youngest of her four children. "There is a higher power that took Jenna because it was her time."

Kate Foellmi said that when Jenna was in Tanzania helping paint a hospital with the other Winona State students, they signed their names on a pillar on the building. Kate Foellmi said she has a photo of that scene and is grateful that "a part of her is in Africa."

Other deaths

Police have said alcohol also played a role in the death of Rissa Amen-Reif, 22, of Eden Prairie, struck and killed by a car Nov. 18 in Mankato, but would not elaborate. Amen-Reif had left a sorority party at Minnesota State University Mankato with her friend and fellow student Corinne Overstake, 21, of Loretto, Minn., when they apparently got lost.

Amen-Reif fell in the street and was being helped up by Overstake when both were struck at 12:47 a.m. Overstake was injured.

Authorities have not said whether the students had alcohol in their systems or whether alcohol was served at the event. But the 17-year-old Mankato boy at the wheel did not appear to have been drinking, authorities have said.

In late October, former Minnesota State University Mankato pre-nursing student Amanda Jax died of acute alcohol poisoning after celebrating her 21st birthday. She had planned to return to the university in the spring. The Blue Earth County attorney is weighing gross misdemeanor charges in Jax's death, either against the bar where she was drinking or the friends with her that evening.

Jax's blood-alcohol content was nearly .46 percent, the medical examiner determined. Several other alcohol poisoning deaths in the United States in recent years involved victims whose blood-alcohol content was near or exceeding .40.

In Foellmi's case, considering her weight of 115 pounds listed on her driver's license and her gender, she would have had to drink more than 12 beers in three hours to approach .40, according to various Web-based calculators operated by governments and colleges.

A survey released last year found that more than half of all Winona State students had consumed five or more drinks in one sitting, constituting binge drinking.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482