Dennis D’Annunzio has cried a lot during the past three days. And now he’s cried himself dry.
But the tightness in his heart and the memory of his son’s infectious smile will never go away.
Brandon D’Annunzio, a 24-year-old Livonia resident and Michigan Technological University engineering student, was removed from life support 4 p.m. Wednesday at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital. He died 10 days after he was severely beaten outside an East Lansing bar.
“I’ve reexamined my motives and I’m going to spend a lot more time to stop and smell the roses now,” Brandon’s father Dennis D’Annunzio said. “I didn’t even wash my hands all day (Wednesday), not until this morning. I could still smell him on my hands and I just wanted to absorb everything about him - the way he looked and the way he smelled because I knew it was for the last time.”
D’Annunzio’s death is East Lansing’s first homicide of the year, police said.
The East Lansing Police Department on Thursday released sketches of the man and woman wanted for questioning in D’Annunzio’s death.
Police are looking for a white male between 20 and 23 years old, about 6 feet tall and about 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black leather coat, an orange mock neck shirt and medium-colored jeans.
A white female sought for questioning is described as slim in build, about 5 feet tall, 120 pounds and about 26 years old. She was last seen wearing a bright orange hat with white lettering, Detective Lt. Lance Langdon said.
At a press conference Thursday, Langdon said the case has been handed over to the Ingham County Major Crimes Task Force. The group will provide technical and investigative resources from multiple Ingham County agencies including East Lansing, MSU, Lansing and Meridian Township police and the FBI.
D’Annunzio had been in a medically-induced coma since Monday to keep him immobile and help heal the severe head injury, fractured skull and blood clot that had developed in his brain.
Doctors told the family the injuries were the equivalent of falling from a second story building. Dennis D’Annunzio said the decision to remove his son from life support was not difficult for him and Brandon’s mother.
“Brandon had always been so full of life. We knew he wouldn’t have wanted to be like this, so I just looked at him and then at his mom,” he said. “She looked back at me, and we just knew it was the right thing. I was able to inhale my son’s last breathe and it was sweet.”
The attack occurred Oct. 1 - the night of the MSU vs. Northwestern football game.
D’Annunzio was beaten in front of BW-3, 220 M.A.C Ave., where he was attending a bachelor party for his friend, John Bradley. While Bradley and his fiancée Jennifer Martino had considered postponing the wedding scheduled for Saturday, Dennis D’Annunzio told them not to.
“I told them to go ahead and have fun, to go out and live their life,” he said. “Life is for the living and we all know that Brandon lived it well.”
It is believed that D’Annunzio had a confrontation with a female while in line at the Riviera Café Restaurant and Lounge, 231 M.A.C. Ave., earlier in the evening. There are no reports of an assault at that time, Langdon said.
D’Annunzio was later separated from his party at BW-3, across the street from the Riv’, became sick and was vomiting when a group of five men and two women approached D’Annunzio and one of the men attacked him, a witness told police.
Paramedics arrived on the scene at about 12:40 a.m. and found D’Annunzio unconscious and bleeding on the sidewalk.
The investigation is ongoing, but since the beating occurred on the night of a home football game, it is possible the assailants were not MSU-affiliated, Langdon said.
Brandon D’Annunzio’s funeral will be held in the Detroit area next weekend. Final details are not yet known.
The family asks those who wish to acknowledge the funeral to make a donation to the grass roots organization Miracle Island in lieu of flowers. Miracle Island benefits the families of children with traumatic brain injuries.
A reward of at least $3,000 is offered for information leading to the arrest of the man who assaulted D’Annunzio. Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity brothers from Michigan Tech. donated the money.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the East Lansing Police Department at 337-2599 or the East Lansing tip line at 1-877-ELPD-TIP.
