
 
 Friends and family members are still waiting for answers in the death Sunday of Rutgers University student Caitlyn Kovacs. 
 
 "I have no answers," said Lorraine Kovacs, Caitlyn's mom. "I have no idea what really happened. It's just mind-boggling to me." 
 
 Investigators have said alcohol may have been involved in her death, but toxicology screens could take weeks, and authorities have not released preliminary findings. Caitlyn's friends have told Lorraine that she was a social drinker, but not a heavy drinker, Lorraine said. According to federal government data, four out of five college students drink alcohol. 
 
 Cailtyn, 19, was taken to the hospital by her friends at 3 in the morning after she appeared to be in distress at a small gathering at the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity house in New Brunswick, according to Middlesex County prosecutor Andrew Carey. She was pronounced dead at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at 3:19 a.m. 
 
 Leading up to her death, Caitlyn was intoxicated but coherent, her friends have told Lorraine. She was talking to a friend, and then suddenly wasn't making any sense, friends have told her. One of her friends felt her pulse, which was faint, Lorraine said. 
 
 Because of how sudden it was, Lorraine suspects that an underlying medical condition was a contributing factor, but she isn't sure. She knows of no diagnosed condition that could have been connected. 
 
 "I'm not ready to go down the path that this was foul play or this was over-drinking," Kovacs said. "I'm not ready to think that, because she wasn't that kind of kid. I never had any problems with her." 
 
 "Right now, I don't blame anybody yet," she said. "I just don't know what to think of it." 
 
 No criminal charges have been filed. 
 
 What Lorraine does know is the unimaginable grief that she only thought happened to other people. The past few nights, she's been waking up at 3:19 in the morning. Every time, she's woken up with one of Caitlyn's cats — she had four of them — lying by her side. 
 
 Caitlyn's death has led to an outpouring of grief in the Rutgers and South Brunswick community, where she is being recalled as a dedicated student, an always-cheerful friend and a passionate animal advocate. 
 
 "She loved her animals," Lorraine said. "She's just always been a delight. I'm heartbroken. She's going to be missed dearly, and I'm sad I don't get to continue to watch her grow up to do the great things I knew she was going to do." 
 
 Caitlyn, a South Brunswick High School graduate, was studying animal science in her second year at Rutgers. She was thinking about opening up her own pet-sitting business, Lorraine said. She had the drive of her father, David, a business owner. Lorraine, a bookkeeper, told her daughter that opening a business was hard. The reason you got into it — the love of taking care of animals — can get lost amid the mundane tasks that running a business requires. 
 
 Caitlyn came up with a solution: "You'll do the bookkeeping stuff, I want to take care of the dogs," Lorraine recalled. 
 
 She had four cats — Teagen, Lincoln, Parker, and Dakota — and a 10-year-old Chihuahua named Cookie. At one point over Labor Day weekend two years ago, the Kovacs family had 25 cats in their house, including cats they owned and transitional fosters. 
 
 Her best friend, Jamie Weingarten, recalled these animal adoption stories. 
 
 "You'd walk into their house, there was just a million cats everywhere," said Weingarten, a fellow South Brunswick High School graduate. "It was the funniest thing ever." 
 
 Caitlyn was loyal to her family, including her sister, Courtney, a student at South Brunswick High School, Weingarten said. 
 
 "She just loved Courtney and did everything for Courtney, and always for Courtney, " she said. 
 
 Jesse Runyon was Caitlyn's boyfriend of three and a half years. They broke up in August, but they were still close. Runyon recalled sitting with her by a fountain in Princeton when they were students at South Brunswick High School, and she was just so happy that she began to cry. A few months later, Runyon asked her to prom by decorating one of the pillars near the same fountain with the letters P-R-O-M? She said yes. 
 
 "I never thought, meeting her for the first time, that it would affect me like this, that she would have such an impact on my life," Runyon said. "We pretty much did everything together. She was my best friend. She still is." 
 
 Caitlyn's friends and family are planning a public memorial service on Oct. 11, in Rutgers cinemas on the Livingston campus. Danny France, a friend of both Caitlyn and Runyon, is organizing the event, which will include music and a slideshow. 
 
 France said Caitlyn would do anything for her friends. For France, like many others, that offer was often expressed in offers to pet-sit. 
 
 "She was a really good friend," France said. "She deserves the best." 
 
 Caitlyn, according to her friends and family, was never in trouble. She came home to visit plenty, according to her mom. She'd have weekly dinner dates with her dad. And freshman year, she came home to do laundry, too. She was home this past Thursday and Friday. 
 
 When Caitlyn was home last week, mom and daughter had lunch. Before Caitlyn left, Lorraine told her, like she always did: "Be careful, be safe, I love you.' And Caitlyn said, 'I will, I love you.'" 
 
 "And she went out the door," Lorraine said, "and that's the last I saw her. It's just unfathomable that she's not going to walk through the door again later. It's just more than I can handle sometimes." 
 
 Brian Amaral may be reached at bamaral@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44. Find NJ.com on Facebook. ||||| 
 
 NEW BRUNSWICK – Caitlyn Kovacs, the 19-year-old Rutgers University sophomore whose death in September touched off a county investigation, died of alcohol poisoning, authorities said on Monday. 
 
 Kovacs died from “acute ethanol toxicity” and the manner of death was accidental, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey, who cited a county medical examiner’s report. 
 
 “The cause of death was determined following completion of toxicology tests,” Carey said in a press release. 
 
 Friends took Kovacs, a Monmouth Junction resident, to a hospital about 3 a.m. Sept. 21 after she appeared to be in distress during a party at the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity house on College Avenue. 
 
 She was pronounced dead at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. 
 
 Police began investigating after hospital officials alerted them of her death. 
 
 Lorraine Kovacs said her daughter’s friends described the sophomore as a social drinker, but not a heavy drinker. 
 
 The prosecutor called the investigation “active and continuing” and urged anyone with information to come forward. 
 
 Anyone with information is asked to call Lt. Paul Fischer of the Rutgers University Police Department at (848) 932-8025, Detective Ken Abode of the New Brunswick Police Department at (732) 745-5217, or Detective Jeffrey Temple of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at (732) 745-3373. 
 
 Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. 
 

– Alcohol poisoning is to blame in the death of the 19-year-old Rutgers student who was taken to the hospital after attending a "gathering" at a fraternity house last month. Sophomore Caitlyn Kovacs was taken from the frat house to the hospital around 3am on Sept. 21 after she appeared to be in distress, and the county medical examiner's report found her death to be accidental and caused by "acute ethanol toxicity," the Star-Ledger reports. A county prosecutor says the investigation into her death is "active and continuing." Days after Kovacs' death, her mom said friends described Caitlyn as a social drinker, not a heavy one. And, Lorraine Kovacs said, friends also said Caitlyn was intoxicated on the night of her death but was coherent until she suddenly, while talking with a friend, stopped making sense. At that point someone felt her pulse, and it was faint. At the time, Lorraine said she doubted "over-drinking" led to the death and suspected Caitlyn had an underlying medical condition that contributed.