The New York Times: A Vape Pen, a Fall and a Question That Won’t Go Away: Why Did Nico Die?

Nico Nuño-Kelley, 17, fell six stories from the roof of his Manhattan apartment building after vaping marijuana. His anguished family wants answers.

Published June 21, 2024
Updated July 23, 2024

“It has been a year since Kathleen Kelley got the devastating call.

“Her 17-year-old son, Nico, the youngest of her three children, had fallen six stories from the roof of their Manhattan apartment building and died.

“Since then, she has pleaded with the police and Manhattan prosecutors for answers. She has asked her son’s friends and classmates at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx for any details about what happened on that rainy afternoon. And when an official investigation revealed scant information, she hired a private investigator.

“To this day, Ms. Kelley, 58, has only one major clue about the final moments of her son, Nico Nuño-Kelley, who was supposed to start his first year at the University of Notre Dame last autumn. Minutes before he climbed to the roof of their Gramercy Park apartment in the driving rain on May 20, 2023, he inhaled marijuana from a friend’s vape pen and began acting erratically, according to statements the police and one of the two friends with him that afternoon gave to the private investigator.”

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