Report: Cyberspace Abuzz With Speculation On New Jersey Metal/Hardcore Fan's Death

James A. Quirk of the Asbury Park Press reports:

Music was a central focus in the life of James C. Morrison. A guitar player who had formed his own bands, Morrison, 25, loved to attend concerts of local hardcore and metal acts — bands supported not by radio and MTV but by enthusiastic fans like him.

On Saturday, the Bass River [New Jersey] man sent out a bulletin message to his friends via MySpace, letting them know he planned to attend a hardcore show the next day at Club Deep on the boardwalk. The lineup of bands was RAMALLAH, WISDOM IN CHAINS, HARD RESPONSE, BULLDOG COURAGE and THE MONGOLOIDS. Doors to the all-ages show opened at 3 p.m.

Morrison never came home from the concert.

Investigators are still piecing together the details of an argument that ended with Morrison lying unconscious on the ground outside the club at 5:50 p.m. Sunday. Police were called, and he was pronounced dead later that evening at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune. The case is proceeding as a homicide investigation, according to authorities, which makes Morrison's murder the first in Monmouth County this year.

First Assistant Prosecutor Peter Warshaw said that at some point during the show, an argument broke out between Morrison and other concertgoers and it continued outside.

No one involved in the club had any comment Tuesday on Morrison's death. The club is owned by Asbury Partners, the company in charge of redeveloping the city's waterfront.

Larry Fishman, chief operating officer of the company, declined comment. Caroline O'Toole, the general manager of Club Deep, said in a previous interview that the fatality occurred outside the club and that she did not know any details. O'Toole declined to comment Tuesday.

On sites like MySpace and www.thenjscene.com, speculation ran rampant online Tuesday as to who is responsible for Morrison's death.

Read the rest of the article at the Asbury Park Press.