For the second time in less than a year, a homeless person was found dead early Thursday in a Lawrence park.

Aaron G. Etsitty, 29, died sometime before 1 a.m. in Burcham Park, 200 Ind., where he was found by Lawrence Police.

The cause of death is still under investigation. An autopsy Thursday afternoon was inconclusive, and the results of toxicology tests will have to be studied for a final determination, police spokesman Sgt. Mike Pattrick said.

Friends and acquaintances of Etsitty said he had suffered from alcohol abuse and had medical problems.

“Maybe he pulled another Rachelle,” said another homeless man who was at the Community Drop In Center, 214 W. 10th St., late Thursday morning.

He was referring to Rachelle “Angel” Conrad, found dead Sept. 7, 2001, in Clinton Park, 501 W. Fifth St. An autopsy report stated she died of alcohol poisoning.

Etsitty was a friend of Conrad but never expressed concern that he might die the way she did, the man at the Drop In Center said. He declined to give his name.

“Everybody who is out on the bricks knows everybody else,” he said. “I think he felt like I do. When your number is up, it’s up.”

About 1 a.m., Lawrence Police were notified of a possible body in Burcham. Officers found Etsitty’s body in the far northern section of the park, police spokesman Sgt. Mike Pattrick said.

“It’s an area known to be frequented by transients,” he said. He wouldn’t say who had notified police about the body.

Pattrick described the case as a death investigation and declined to speculate whether Etsitty died of foul play or other causes.

But during a budget hearing Thursday, Lawrence City Manager Mike Wildgen told city commissioners that police had told him “no foul play could be determined at this point.”

Police notified a relative in Lawrence about Etsitty’s death, Pattrick said. A homeless man who knew Etsitty said Etsitty could have stayed with a relative but chose the streets instead.

There is always a group of people who choose to live on the streets, said Tami Clark, director of the Drop In Center.

“I don’t pretend to understand all the reasons,” Clark said. “All we can do is to just be here whenever they’re ready to make a change or to help them when they need it.”

In February, Etsitty was found by police lying unconscious in the 900 block of Tennessee Street.

At the time police thought he might have been the victim of an attacker. When he had recovered enough to talk with detectives, he said he had not been attacked and was not a victim of a crime, police said then.

“He was pretty adamant about it,” Pattrick said.

Ashley Milford, social worker at the Salvation Army, 946 N.H., said she had seen Etsitty on Wednesday and expressed sadness upon learning of his death. She said he had often come by the Salvation Army headquarters.

“He always seemed to be intoxicated and incoherent when I saw him,” she said. “He never caused a problem.”

Sharilyn Wells, director of Acceptance House, 407 Maine, also was saddened to learn of Etsitty’s death.

“I hope we can do something to show our concern and to honor him and others like him,” she said.