Missing Carlsbad Student Found Dead; Suicide Suspected

A college student reported missing last week was found dead Thursday, an apparent suicide.

Confirmation of Alex Zingaro’s death came a day after Carlsbad police, who were investigating his disappearance, halted their search and said that Zingaro’s parents, who live in Lake Forest, had withheld information.

Zingaro, 22, was found by hikers about 12:30 p.m. in the forest outside Fawnskin, a small community near Big Bear, said Linda Myers of the San Bernardino County coroner’s office. She would not divulge the cause of death, characterizing it only as apparently self-inflicted.

“Our doctors will be reviewing it to determine the cause,” she said.

Zingaro had last been seen Sept. 5 by his roommate in the San Diego County community of Carlsbad.

After filing a police report that triggered a well-publicized investigation, his parents had spent the weekend passing out fliers and distributing pictures in Carlsbad and at nearby Cal State San Marcos, where he was a junior, majoring in communications.

On Sunday, police say, the roommate found a note Zingaro had left in his computer; the roommate shared the message with Zingaro’s parents either that day or the next. “It was basically a private note from Alex to his parents confirming that he had made a decision to voluntarily leave the area,” said Lt. Jim Byler, a spokesman for the Carlsbad Police Department.

Byler had been critical of the parents’ handling of the matter before learning of the young man’s death. “They didn’t bring it to us and that’s the issue,” he said of the note. “They [decided] that they wanted the search to continue. When ... you have relevant information, you need to bring it to the authorities immediately.”

Zingaro’s parents denied withholding information, saying that they didn’t see the note until late Tuesday and would have reported it Wednesday. By then, however, the young man’s roommate had told investigators about the note during an interview.

The parents will not be charged, Byler said, because they were not aware of the note when they filed the police report and were apparently acting in good faith. But the department stopped looking for Zingaro because investigators believed that he had acted freely.

Alex’s father Thursday characterized his son’s last message as one that could not necessarily be construed as a suicide note. “It said, ‘I’m going to go away and come back,’ ” Al Zingaro said. “The end of it did say that he would see us soon.” He said that his son did not seem to be depressed.

Regarding the assertion that the family withheld information, the father said, “I’m irate. The timing stated [by the police] is way off.”