Anton Jungenberg, a transfer student from San Diego, attended SF State for less than two weeks before something his friends say had been building up inside him reached a critical point.

19-year-old Jungenberg committed suicide the morning of Sept. 6, despite showing excitement about beginning what his friends described as a new chapter in his life at SF State.

At 6:31 p.m. on Sept. 5, with "Anton Viktor Jungenberg IS MIST AND ZOMBIES," his Facebook status updates began throbbing with frustration and despair. At 2:59 a.m. they culminated and read "Anton Viktor Jungenberg is finally going to be free. Let's find out if there really is a hell."

Roughly 30 minutes after that, the San Francisco Police Dept. received a call from a frantic gas station employee saying someone had set themselves on fire and was next to one of the pumps, engulfed in flames.

"I don't know what set him off to do it," 19-year-old political science major Brooke Wojdynski said. She has known Jungenberg since they attended Fallbrook Union High School together in Fallbrook, Calif. "I just know that if I had to sit here and think of one person in my life who I thought would be eligible for suicide, I would probably pick Anton."

"When I found out, I started showing my friends all his artwork on Facebook because they were like, 'Who is this guy?' and I was like, 'He's this crazy artist, and he's not dead, this can't be possible,'" Wojdynski said. "We started looking at all of his artwork and the more that I saw, the more I was like, 'How did I not notice this?' All he does is talk about hell and death."

His stepfather, John McGee, said Jungenberg was a gentle person who liked to take trips to the mountains for fishing and hiking and also enjoyed cooking. In addition, Jungenberg also possessed an attraction to the dark and morbid.

"I wish that young people would choose to promote a culture of life rather than to glamorize death," McGee said. "But he was a kind person, and I know his art will live on."

His close friends describe him as having an "off-the-wall" sense of humor and will remember him as the guy who would say things no one would ever expect.

"He was always just pushing the border, pushing your thoughts, never fitting into the social constructs of how you would be expected to act," Wojdynski said.

Wojdynski said Jungenberg would have rather been remembered for his art than who he was personally.

"I don't think he was ever really happy with who he was as an individual. I think that's why he was always on a search," Wojdynski said. "I think he was just trying to figure himself out, like so many people our age do. I just think he had a harder time with it."

In high school, Jungenberg was an active member of the Fallbrook Presbyterian Church, and part of a very tight-knit youth group called the "Band of Brothers," comprising some of his closest friends growing up.

"Anton was the glue that held it together," fellow BOB member and 21-year-old student at Palomar College Joshua Guardado said; the type of guy who would "give you his last dollar."

His friends saw him develop into the unique character they remember as he attended his first semesters at Grossmont Community College in El Cajon, Calif.

"He never let anyone besides himself shape who he was," 21-year-old UC San Diego student and former BOB member James Jepsen said. "He didn't hold back, and he offered himself freely."

He is survived by his parents, Michael Jungenberg and Bridget and John McGee, and his sister and brother, Bridget and Patrick McGee. His many friends agree that although they may never know what made this lively, artistic young man on the verge of new things want to end his life, there will never be anyone quite like him.

"He was always giving and always loving, just didn't get much back in return," Kaitlin Weaver, 19-year-old social work major from Azusa Pacific, said.

"He had this freeness about him," Wojdynski said. "He always felt like he had to identify himself as one thing or another in order to be accepted.

"He was free, and he said what he wanted to say and drew what he wanted to draw...even if he was dark, he inspired you to just be, and kind of be like, 'Screw you, I'm gonna do my own thing.'"