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On Saturday, Patrick Noel Jernigan II should have been playing video games with his mom, hanging out with his sister and cuddling with his 3-year-old daughter, Olivia.
He never made it to his home in Cleveland, Texas.
The Texas A&M University student was found under a train near Wellborn Road north of Old Main Drive just after 2 a.m. Friday, police said. His death is under investigation.
"We think it's foul play," said his sister, Alex Jernigan, fighting back tears. "My brother would not kill himself. He was supposed to see his daughter. He was supposed to come here. He was supposed to graduate in December. ... People with all this good stuff going on don't kill themselves."
Police said they are interviewing friends and family to figure out the events that led to the 22-year-old being on the tracks. An autopsy is scheduled for Sunday.
The University Police Department is receiving assistance from College Station Police Department investigators and the District Attorney's Office in its investigation, said Michael Ragan, Texas A&M's assistant police chief.
"When you have questionable circumstances that led to this death, that's just being thorough, making sure it's being looked at from every possible angle," Ragan said. "I have no earthly idea how he ended up where he did."
Ben Bravo of Bryan was supposed to hang out with Jernigan early Friday. He said he got off work at the West Corp. in College Station about 1:45 a.m. The plan was for Jernigan to come over and play video games and watch movies, the typical hangout routine, Bravo said.
"I called him at 9:30 p.m. He picked up. When I called him at 2 in the morning, it went straight to voicemail. Sometime between then, his phone was shut off."
Alex Jernigan said she spoke with her brother Thursday afternoon and noticed nothing unusual. The two talked about what they were up to -- nothing much, both told each other -- and then he asked to speak with their mother. It was one of the typical countless conversations the tight-knit siblings had, she said.
The pair was always close. During the brother's sophomore year at Texas A&M, his sister, now 21, moved into his apartment. In school, Patrick Jernigan, who was a straight-A student on the honor roll and serious about academics, introduced his sister to Key Club.
"He was just fun-loving ... and awesome," Alex Jernigan said. "He was my only brother, my only sibling."
Stephen Darrouzet, a biomedical engineering graduate student, chuckled Saturday as he recalled how Jernigan used to lug his whole desktop computer into Darrouzet's dorm room so they could play computer games, and then lug it all out a couple of hours later.
During his first or second year at Texas A&M, Darrouzet and another friend walked into Jernigan's apartment and watched as the new father proudly held up each of about 10 outfits he had bought his daughter.
"We were 19-year-old college students looking at baby clothes. In one sense, it was hilarious. In another, I thought, if I was in his situation, I wouldn't be prepared," Darrouzet said. "He would have walked to the ends of the Earth for his daughter."
Olivia's mother had custody of the girl, but the parents were on good terms and Jernigan would be allowed to take the toddler whenever he wanted, his sister said.
No memorial services had been set late Saturday.
"You know what," Alex Jernigan said, "he's in a better place now. He's with our grandparents. They're all watching down on us now."
