Deceased individual found in parking lot

On Tuesday Aug. 21, GTPD discovered the body of a deceased individual in the back of a vehicle parked in the guest parking lot of the Fred B. Wenn Student Center.

All day Tuesday, the second day of classes of the new fall semester, students and staff observed a pungent odor coming from the parking lot. With Atlanta in the middle of a heatwave, Tuesday was no exception.Temperatures reached 100 degrees, and by 7 p.m. the odor had become noticeable enough to staff to finally call it to the attention of Tech police.

Inside the cab of a white 2007 Toyota Tundra pickup truck in the back corner of the parking lot was the body ofJohnathan M. Grams, who has been confirmed by the registrar's office as a being former Tech student who was most recently enrolled in fall of 2003 as a mechanical engineering major. Various sources have listed him as either 27 or 28 years old.

Later it was discovered that the truck, which bore Alabama license plates, was reported stolen in that state, and that Grams was in possession of drivers licenses from both Georgia and Alabama.

The Fulton County Medical Examiner reported no external trauma or injuries to the body, and the results of an autopsy and toxicology report were pending at press time.

When police discovered the individual, they sealed off a radius of 50 feet around the pickup truck in the parking lot and performed a rigorous investigation and cleanup, with the help of the Atlanta Police Department.

By the next morning the lot was opened up as facilities workers cleaned the parking lot to eliminate any remnants of the scene.

In addition to being at the beginning of a new semester, or for freshmen at the beginning of their career at Tech, the timing was particularly unfortunate with a sorority rush event taking place in the Student Center at the time that police began the investigation of the scene.

Among the many questions surrounding this incident is why Grams was at Tech in the first place, given that he has not been enrolled in nearly four years. Another question is exactly how long Grams was in the truck.

"The body was extremely decomposed. Any time a body is exposed to the heat, the decomposition is usually increased," said officer Ron Campbell of the Atlanta Police Department.

The Atlanta Police Department took charge of the investigation Tuesday evening, and will be working with the Georgia Tech Police Department.

No one from GTPD was available for comment. Students and parents were notified Wednesday morning of the incident through a campus advisory email.