UMD student found dead in Duluth creek is identified

Authorities released the identity Sunday of the University of Minnesota Duluth student whose body was found in a creek in the city.

The body of 22-year-old Kyle Noble, of Baudette, Minn., was floating in Chester Creek, near Chester Park Drive and 8th Street, early Saturday afternoon when personnel from the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office arrived at the scene.

"There does not appear to be any foul play," the Sheriff's Office said in a statement. There has been no initial explanation from authorities about what led to Noble's death.

Noble's body was recovered in a portion of the creek that has a deep gorge beneath a bridge. That spot is about three-quarters of a mile south of the campus' southern edge.

Nobles attended Lake of the Woods High School and graduated in 2011.

A similar death occurred in the same area 11 years ago, when a drunken University of Minnesota Duluth student fell to his death in a ravine. Grant E. Geiselhart's blood alcohol level was 0.176 percent, police said.

Sometime between 2 and 5 a.m., Geiselhart had left on foot from a home where he and other students of legal age had been drinking. Geiselhart had fallen about 40 feet from a cliff next to a trail.

"It's been a problem for years, since I've lived here — people falling, people jumping," Mike Hampston, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, told Duluth television station KBJR. "College kids with too much to drink. You see all of the fire trucks on the bridge, and you say 'oh my gosh, not again.' "

PAUL WALSH