Student dies in apparent suicide

Police in the town of Carolina Beach found the body of an N.C. State student Sunday afternoon, according to police Detective Rollin Stone.

Frank Chen, a senior in biomedical engineering, allegedly shot himself, according to Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Tom Stafford.

Chen wrote what appeared to be a suicide note in his LiveJournal page at 1 p.m. Sunday. Friends said they found out he was missing around that time.

"The past 14 months have been a more or less continuous withering away of my connections to my own life," the LiveJournal entry said. "At this point, I'm not sure of my own sanity anymore ... I don't feel like I'd be particularly missed, and I don't feel like anything in particular matters anyway. I'm replaceable."

As of Monday night, Chen had 70 comments to his post, with many people stating they wished his post was a joke and that he was not replaceable, despite what he wrote.

Stone said someone saw Chen's body at the beach and called 911. According to Stone, he is still investigating the case and cannot confirm it as a suicide.

"The family has been notified, but I cannot release any other information," Stone said.

Chen was known on The Wolf Web by his username "Stiletto," where he created a thread about his first pistol. He also made several references to the fact that he was a gun owner on his NCSU Web page.

According to Thaddeus Wolicki, a junior in polymer and color chemistry, he knew Chen since his freshman year and was Chen's roommate freshman and sophomore year.

According to Wolicki, Chen was "amazingly unselfish."

Wolicki said he found out about Chen's death Sunday evening.

"Unfortunately, I did not speak to him about specific problems he was having at N.C. State," Wolicki said.

Chen was involved in ballroom dancing at the University, according to Wolicki, and Chen's Myspace page also said that one of his hobbies was photography. Chen's final LiveJournal entry listed the link for all his pictures and the password to his online photo account.

Lauren Phillips, another friend of Chen's and a sophomore in color and polymer chemistry, said she knew Chen since 2002 when they both were attending the N.C. School of Science and Math. She found out he was missing when his roommate called on Sunday to see if she knew where he was, Phillips said.

"We just had no idea where he'd gone," she said.

Phillips said she did not think it was her place to say if Chen was having problems, but that the "very few who knew him knew he was this upset."

According to Phillips, Chen was a "one of the most selfless people" she knew and a "really good person."

News Editor Josh Harrell contributed to this report.