Professor Falls to Death from Riverside Apartment

A professor fell to his death from the eighth floor of 452 Riverside Dr. on Monday, police officials said.

Petrus Schaesberg had lived at that address for about two years, according to doorman Douglas Calderon. Schaesberg was an adjunct professor in the art history department at Columbia in 2005, according to the Encyclopedia of Living Artists.

Police said Schaesberg’s injuries were consistent with those of a fall, but officials have not determined whether he jumped, was pushed, or fell accidentally. Police responded to an 11:35 a.m. call from a neighboring building. The body was removed and sent to the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Results from an autopsy to determine if the death was a suicide will be available tomorrow, according to Ellen Borakove, spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office.

Schaesberg fell into the private courtyard shared by 450 and 452 Riverside Dr., according to Melvin Mencher, an emeritus professor at the Graduate School of Journalism who lives at 450 Riverside Dr., and other sources.

A residential manager for a nearby building said he saw Schaesberg’s body covered with a sheet from his first-floor apartment around 11 a.m. Monday morning. “I saw only his feet because when I got there the police had covered him,” he said. “It was a very bad scene.”

The manager, who spoke anonymously due to his employment at Columbia, said a resident of 452 Riverside Dr. told him she heard a “loud noise” while walking downstairs and called the building’s porter, who found Schaesberg outside.

“It was terrible to see,” said the manager, assuming Schaesberg’s death was the result of suicide. “He has guts to do it. You know exactly what’s going to happen. But everyone takes life differently.”

Several local residents said they saw two ambulances and several police cars at the scene around noon on Monday, surrounded by a crowd of about 20 people.

One doorman of a nearby building said he often saw Schaesberg walking by. Identifying him by a detailed description from a resident of 452 Riverside, the doorman said he saw Schaesberg and a woman “walking together” on Saturday.

“He seemed like reserved—like, grave, and he said ‘hi,’ but not to a point where you can have a conversation. I could never get a conversation with him,” the doorman, who spoke anonymously, said.

The doorman, who has worked in a nearby building for 10 years, said this was the first such episode he had heard of occurring on Riverside Drive.

A Columbia spokesperson did not return calls for comment. Associate Vice President of Campus Safety James McShane did not return calls for comment Monday night.

Schaesberg’s car—a dark green Mercedes-Benz ML320—was parked a block away from his building, a number of building employees and residents confirmed. The car had a $45 parking ticket on its windshield, dated Monday at 11:05 a.m., as the vehicle was in violation of alternate-side street cleaning measures. The car, which contained sunglasses, papers, and other possessions, also had a sticker from the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association.

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