Recovered body may be Rutgers freshman

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PISCATAWAY, N.J., Sept. 30 (UPI) -- New York police say a body pulled from the Hudson River may be a university student who jumped to his death after his gay encounter was posted on the Internet.

The New York Police Department's Harbor Unit pulled the body of a young man from the river Wednesday, saying they believe it is Tyler Clementi, a freshman on Rutgers' Piscataway, N.J., campus, the New York Post reported Thursday.

Just minutes before he leaped to his death Sept. 22, Clementi posted on Facebook: "Jumping off the gw bridge. sorry."

Police arrested Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and another freshman Molly Wei, on invasion of privacy charges. Ravi, 18, was arrested Tuesday and freed on $25,000 bail, while Wei, 18, was arrested Monday and released without bail.

"I can tell you that whatever state he was in, he had it in reserve for a very long time," Robert Righthand, friends with Clementi since grade school, told the Post. "You never thought he was depressed. You just thought he was quiet."

Officials said Ravi activated the Web camera on his computer Sept. 19 and went to Wei's room, where they remotely accessed the feed and saw Clementi engaged in a "sexual encounter" with another man.

Tony-winning Broadway lyricist Joe DiPietro, whose music Clementi played in a theater run of "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," ripped Ravi and Wei.

"What kind of creepy kids would record someone in the privacy of their home and then post it for some sort of intended public humiliation?" DiPietro said. "As a gay man, and a graduate of Rutgers, class of '84, my heart breaks for this young man."

Friends of Ravi and Wei, who went to the same high school, said they probably played a practical joke that went wrong, the Post said.