Macomb Community College shifts some classes to do cleaning after man's body found

Macomb Community College’s Clinton Township campus closed its performing arts center and shifted some classes to other locations to perform cleaning of the college’s HVAC system after the body of a 36-year-old man was found in the system, a college spokesperson said.

The body of Jason Thompson, a Clinton Township resident, was found Sunday night after relatives said he had been missing since late October.

The News reported Wednesday that Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office completed an autopsy and ruled Thompson's cause of death an accident. Thompson was asphyxiated after he became trapped in the HVAC system, said Casimir Miarka, the administrator for the Medical Examiner's Office.

Jeanne M. Nicol, the executive director of communications and public relations at MCC, said in a Wednesday evening email that Thompson’s body was completely contained in a portion of the HVAC system, “to which access is restricted and not open to the public.”

Nicol said the impacted area of the HVAC system services the campus's L Building on M-59 and Garfield Road, which contains classrooms, and portions of M Building, which is home to the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts. College police found the body while responding to a complaint of a foul odor at the performing arts center.

Nicol said L Building and M Building are closed while the HVAC system is “thoroughly cleaned, disinfected and sanitized.” She said most of the classes in L Building were able to be rescheduled for other campus locations instead of being cancelled, and no performing arts center programming was scheduled for the time the cleaning is taking place.

Thompson’s cousin has organized a GoFundMe fundraiser to raise money for his memorial service and his two kids. As of Thursday evening, it had generated approximately $3,700.