During his time at Lansing Catholic Central High School, MSU finance freshman Darren Brown could be seen walking around the hallways with stacks of paper in his hands and folders busting out of his backpack.
“He’d come in every day with a backpack full of stuff, just a huge pile of notebooks and folders,” said Mel Corey, a Lansing Community College student and longtime friend of Brown. “Some of it would be notes; some of it would be thoughts.”
It was his passion for school, his infectious laugh and his quirks that will make Brown impossible to forget, Corey said.
Brown and 23-year-old Owen Goodenow were found dead Thursday in their southwest Lansing home. Lansing police Lt. Noel Garcia said autopsies show homicide as the cause of death for both men, and the crime appears to be drug-related.
There are no suspects and the deaths are under investigation, Garcia said. Police did not disclose the manner of death.
Brown’s grandfather, Jesse Woods, said he thinks his grandson was mixed up in the “wrong crowd” because of his friendly demeanor.
“He was just a good kid that got exposed to the wrong types of activities, and it cost him his life,” Woods said.
Woods said Brown, who grew up in Chicago, was a smart kid, who always was upbeat and friendly.
He said Brown had a 3.9 grade-point average in high school, obtained a scholarship to go to MSU and had a bright future ahead of him. Woods remembered his grandson as a quiet boy, who went to a school for academically gifted children in Chicago.
“He was smart, very smart, all through grade school and high school,” Woods said.
Even in college, his work ethic was evident, friends said. Advertising junior James Gibbons said Brown was a bright student who always had a smile on his face.
“He always tried the hardest in school,” Gibbons said.
Corey said Brown was future-oriented, always looking for what he could do next in his life.
Brown had a list of goals he wanted to accomplish, which included receiving an MBA and becoming an author.
“He had a list of things he wanted to do, and he was going to do all of them,” Corey said. “He was so ambitious and so smart that he could do any of those things.”
Despite the circumstances surrounding Brown’s death, Corey said Brown should be remembered for the life he led.
“Behind everything that everyone is saying, this is an amazing person — an intelligent, amazing young man,” Corey said. “In reality, terrible things do happen to really, really good people, and it’s hard for people to accept that.”
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