The death of a junior student at his off-campus residence Saturday morning was ruled a suicide by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner, according to the medical examiner’s report.

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Don Mills notified students of the death of 21-year-old Hayden Bowers in an email Saturday afternoon.

According to an incident report from the Fort Worth Police Department, an officer was dispatched on a suicide investigation to a private residence at the 3100 block of Lubbock Avenue at 8:42 a.m. Saturday. Two friends who lived with Bowers and one friend who was staying overnight told police they last saw Bowers at about 3:30 a.m. Saturday when he went into his room, locked the door and started playing music loudly, according to the report.

A friend of Bowers’ parents came to check on him at his parents’ request and called the police and fire departments, according to the report. The three friends at the house said they were unaware anything might be wrong until the parents’ friend arrived, according to the report.

The medical examiner’s report ruled cause of death as suicide by hanging.

Mills said he did not know Bowers personally but that he had heard from others that Bowers was a great person who was very active at the university.

“Everybody who knew him liked him,” Mills said. “He was a good guy, and people liked to be around him.”

According to gofrogs.com, Bowers was a former redshirt freshman fullback during the 2009-10 TCU football season. He previously played for Austin High School. According to the American-Statesman, Bowers was a two-time All-Central Texas linebacker and won the District 25-5A Defensive MVP award as a senior in high school.

Head football coach Gary Patterson released a statement about Bowers and said Bowers was “a great kid, from a great family, an outstanding young man.”

Charlie Self, Bowers’ uncle, said Bowers was a great “kid” who was very much loved and adored by his family.

According to Bowers’ obituary from the Austin American-Statesman, a memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Austin at Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Mills said any time the campus loses a member of the TCU community, everyone is diminished by it. He said the best tribute that can be made to Bowers is to move forward, to remember and to keep alive the good memories from Bowers’ life and to not focus on how it ended.

The decision of whether to have a memorial service on campus would be left to Bowers’ family, Mills said. The university has been in contact with Bowers’ family, he said.

Mills said the university was notified of Bowers’ death from one of Bowers’ fraternity brothers on Saturday morning. Bowers was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Mills said certain circumstances, including details available or whether rumors circulate about an incident, help the university determine when it is appropriate to contact students about certain incidents, such as a student death.

This is the third suicide by a TCU student in a span of 15 months. Amanda Bebout died in January 2010, and Stephen Scherer died in October the same year.