“Sometimes there’s a few hundred, sometimes there’s 50,” she said.

Police said the manner of Jax’s death is disturbing.

“It was a very tragic death. Something we feared would occur has occurred,” said Jerry Huettl, director of the Mankato Department of Public Safety. “We’ve believed for a long time it wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ something like this would happen, but a matter of ‘when’.”

Binge drinking has been an acknowledged problem among college-aged drinkers for years. But in the last decade or so, extreme drunkenness has been more common.

A few well-publicized deaths several years ago put birthday rituals such as the “power hour” — what used to be the one hour of legal drinking time the day a person turned 21 — became the subject of lawmaker scrutiny. Since then a state law was passed prohibiting anyone from consuming alcohol before 8 a.m. on the day of their 21st birthday.

“Maverick Health,” a newsletter published by MSU, has often contained messages about the dangers of binge drinking. One issue in particular, published in 2005, advised students to not pressure friends to binge on their 21st birthdays.

Friends, however, chose to remember what everyone seems to remember about Jax: her contagious smile and the joy they say she brought to everyone.

Dan Regnier said he met her on the first day of the freshman year. She’s been one of his best friends ever since.

“She was an amazing person. A person everyone loved,” Regnier said. “I remember her being extremely smart. She was always dedicated to what she was doing.”

Said Besser, “She definitely knew how to bring energy to any situation ... She would have been a really good nurse, that’s for sure ... She really knew how to work with people, how to start conversations, and she could comfort them in any way.”

Added Regnier, “She was the kind of person you could not hate.”

Jax’s funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in St. Bonifacius. MSU has not yet planned a memorial service on campus.