Student killed by train

A body reported lying next to the train tracks between West Sixth and West Seventh streets early Nov. 15 by an Amtrak engineer has been identified as that of 19-year-old Chico State student James Lowder.

He was found at about 4 a.m. and was reportedly last seen leaving a nearby party just after midnight. It is not clear when Lowder was struck, police said. He may have been hit by another train passing through about an hour before his body was discovered.

Lowder, a pre-business-administration student, was in his second year at Chico State. He came here from the Folsom area. The Butte County Sheriff’s Office is conducting an investigation into the cause of death, and the university lowered its flag to half-staff in his honor.