Family says son made fatal leap in Brighton

Carol and Robert Rhoades of South Hamilton thought they had drilled enough caution into their 24-year-old son before he headed into Boston for the holiday weekend.

Carol Rhoades urged her son, Andrew, to leave the car in the driveway and take the train to avoid drunk drivers. Robert Rhoades cautioned him to be careful while partying with friends.

But Andrew's parents could not have protected their son Saturday when he telephoned a friend at 8 a.m. and left an ominous message.

''I'm up on the roof," the former track star said. ''I'm about to make this incredible jump, but I don't know if I can make it."

At 12:14 p.m., a passerby discovered Rhoades's body lying between two apartment buildings about three stories high in Brighton's Oak Square.

''He went for it, and it cost him his life," Robert Rhoades said yesterday, choking back tears as he spoke about the son he watched win at high school track meets and graduate from college.

Rhoades said his son aspired to a career in broadcasting while working at VideoLink, a broadcast production and transmission company in Watertown. He also dreamed of appearing on ''Fear Factor," a reality television show featuring ordinary participants performing stunts ranging from eating insects to jumping into the ocean from a helicopter for cash prizes. ''He thought he was Superman," his father said.

Andrew's girlfriend, Eva Drozdowski, 24, of Worcester, said Andrew loved thrills. ''He was very athletic and brave," she said through tears yesterday. ''He always had a passion for exhilarating and adventurous things to do. It's so sad that what we loved so much about him also took him away."

Boston police officials declined to discuss how Andrew Rhoades died, saying only that there was no foul play and that they are still investigating the cause.

But family members and friends said that every year the blond-haired, blue-eyed bodybuilder would spend the Thanksgiving holiday reuniting with high school buddies. After a game of touch football on Friday at Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School, where Andrew once led his cross-country team to three straight undefeated seasons, the group spent a night drinking at a friend's Brighton apartment.

''My son wasn't a drinker," said Robert Rhoades, ''but he must have had a few beers that night."

''He was just an all-around clean-cut, handsome, and outgoing kid," said his mother. ''He was into his work. He was a star athlete. This should not have happened to him."

But the senselessness of his death was hard to deny. ''You cannot imagine the horror of this thing; he's ripped my heart out," his father said.

Friends told the parents that Andrew's friends were gathered in one apartment and that Andrew wanted to get into the apartment of another friend in an adjacent building. That apartment building was locked, the friends said. Andrew went back next door and climbed to the roof, his father said. Just as he was about to leap from one rooftop to the other is when he left the phone message, his father said.

After the body was discovered, the Rhoadeses tried to retrace their son's steps. Robert Rhoades found an open back door behind one building along with a 10-foot ladder and an open skylight. He climbed to the roof and saw how far his son tried to jump. ''It was about a 20-foot gap," between buildings, Robert Rhoades said. ''No one could make that jump, but I guess he came close."

Scratch marks were found on the rubber edging of the roof next door, Rhoades said. Andrew's watch was also found on that roof.

Andrew's parents knocked on doors and held up a picture of their son as they asked residents if they saw or heard anything. ''One guy said he heard my son, that he heard a bang," Rhoades said. ''But the guy didn't go out and look."

A funeral Mass for Andrew Rhoades will be said at 9 a.m. tomorrow in St. Mary Star of the Sea Church, Beverly.

Megan Tench can be reached at mtench@globe.com.