The parents of Ryan Sims ’11 have filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, seeking surveillance footage that could reveal further details about the 23 year old’s death last December, according to a March 14 article in the New York Daily News.
Sims’ parents hope to use the surveillance footage to learn more about the remains of their son’s body, which they think could have been run over or moved by track cleaners, according to the article. Sims’ parents submitted video footage and photographs to the MTA to aid the investigation of his movement through the stations leading up to his death.
The Daily News reported Dec. 11, 2012 that a body was found around 7:15 a.m. on the tracks under a tunnel between New York’s First Avenue and East 14th Street subway stations. The body was later identified as Sims’. Police suspected he was fatally struck by a Manhattan-bound L train, the Daily News reported.
The investigation remains open, and police said they do not yet have sufficient evidence to determine whether the cause of death was an accident, foul play or suicide, according to the March 14 article. The Daily News reported that court papers stated a medical examiner concluded the cause of Sims’ death to be blunt-force trauma. The court papers stated Sims’ injuries suggested he had been hit by “one or more” trains, the Daily News reported. Sims’ last known location before his body’s discovery was the Eighth Avenue L station, where he had last used his MetroCard around 7 p.m. Dec. 10, according to the March 14 article.
Sims’ mother, Melinda Sims, said in court papers filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday that certain items on Sims’ person, including his iPhone, wallet, backpack and eyeglasses, have not been found, the Daily News reported.
Sims was living in Great Neck, N.Y. at the time of his death, according to Tributes.com. A funeral service was held Dec. 17 at the Riverside-Nassau North Chapel in Great Neck, followed by a Committal Service at the New Montefiore Cemetery in Pinelawn, NY, according to an online obituary.
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