Thursday, 4:30 PM
Mom says body found on Cape is her son, a missing MIT student
By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff
The mother of a missing MIT senior said today that it was her son's body that washed ashore Thursday on a Cape Cod beach.
"He was the Eagle Scout type-kid. Very kind. Very hardworking," Susan Kayton said of her 22-year-old son, Daniel Barclay. "He had everything to look forward to."
Kayton spoke today after viewing the body at the Boston headquarters of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The autopsy is not complete, but it appears her son drowned, she said. Barclay had been missing since April 8, according to police at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Michael O'Keefe, the district attorney for the Cape and Islands, said that the body did not have any obvious signs of trauma. It was found Thursday on Scussett Beach Reservation in Sandwich.
"There are no indications thus far that foul play in involved," O'Keefe said today in a telephone interview. The medical examiner will determine the official cause of death.
Barclay had recently purchased a rubber raft and had spoken in the past about how beautiful he considered the Boston Harbor Islands.
"It's possible that he wanted to get away from it all and headed to the islands in Boston Harbor," said Kayton, an MIT alumna who lives in the San Francisco area. "They are a lot further away than they look. We will never know. He did not leave any note or anything like that.''
When asked today if her son may have committed suicide, Kayton said she couldn't say.
"That's a very good question," she said. "The medical examiner, so far, doesn't know the answer. And the police who are investigating, so far they don't know the answer. They may never know the answer."
According to MIT, Barclay was a fifth year student studying political science and lived in the Ashdown House. He was a member of the MIT Parliamentary Debate Team and last summer was awarded the Jeffrey L. Pressman Award, which is given to undergraduates to undertake a special project or internship in U.S. government, politics, or policy, the university said in a statement.
