Not to cast a shadow on this young lady, but it seems that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than many of us know about.

A source told me that she had a rather revealing web site and had left Chi Omega. While it seems that she have should have been on top of the world, it sounds like there were serious problems in her head.

We may never know for sure what was and she was thinking in her mind and life.

Why would she be going to S PI house to change clothes, supposedly, she did know in a casual way some of the members.

I am beginning to think that the Sigma Pi Brothers took one on the chin. But I would still like to hear more about the situation before it dies in the news media.

The article said she was found around 6:20 p.m. and had been dead for 12 hours, and was in a little-used room in the house.

That means that she may have died around 6 a.m.

Which means that the brothers doing the checks were probably doing so around midnight, 2 a.m., even 4 a.m.

At which point, they possibly stopped checking because they probably went to bed, not that they stopped because they were partying too hard.

I know that I would have assumed, if I'd checked and saw that she was unconscious but still breathing, that she would have slept it off and wouldn't still be there when I woke up around ten or eleven a.m.

That assumption, and my lack of experience, and my potential own level of alcohol, would have led me to not tell others that she was in that room drunk and passed out, would have led me not to call 911, would have led me not to check on her the next morning, but would have led me to think that she must be fine, and that I'd call later on that afternoon to see if she was feeling better.

Please keep in mind that she and many of the fraternity brothers were only 18-21 years old. Not many of us really know how to deal with weird situations at that age. The fact that the police said that there was booze all over the fraternity house does not necessarily mean that she did drink there. Maybe she was on the way home and felt woozy, and felt that the house would be a safe place to crash for a few minutes, rather than calling a cab ($$$), or trying to walk home by herself.

My point being, we don't know all of the details, and until/unless we do, maligning the brothers and the young lady won't bring her back. I personally don't need to know why she chose to leave her sorority-- that's her business and her chapter's business, not my business.

A better response is to contact our nationals and our local chapters, as well as our college campuses, and bring this issue to light-- have our chapters discuss what happened, and what should be done if our friends get into that kind of a situation. It isn't just greeks who get alcohol poisoning, or drive drunk, or make other stupid and uninformed choices.

great post, kate.

Any updates on the toxicology report. I am curious about the official cause of death.

Surreal
 

I was one of Sam's best friends, and upon returning from her funeral in Nebraska am saddened by the media's potrayal of Sam.
I personaly was chased to my car every time I went outside, followed on campus from class to class, heckled at her candlelight vigil held here, literally followed to Nebraska for her funeral service and burial. And immediatly after we watched her casket lowered as we walked to our cars we were photographed and hounded by reporters. Companies that have advertisments in the Denver Post have pulled their advertisments from the paper due to biased and tasteless reporting on the papers part. Her website was a private photo album not intended to be hacked into by reporters.
All who knew Sam knew how amazing and unique she was.

No matter what, the blame cannot be placed on the members of sigma pi or anyone else. When something so tragic and unexpected occurs, people tend to need something/someone to heave their own insecurity and pain upon.
Sam was an amazing woman and I am a better person to have known her.
I hope the good to come from this is people looking at their own lives and reevaluate your own drinking habits and understand this could happen to anyone even your best friend.

I left a response to this in the "Sam" thread where you also left these comments.

As for "blame," it does lie somewhere. I don't know where, but when the investigation is over and it is affixed, we'll learn about it in the media.

Update from CBS Denver...

Student Died After 11-Hour Drinking Spree

Sep 17, 2004 1:38 pm US/Mountain
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) A 19-year-old college student drank the equivalent of up to 40 beers in an 11-hour spree before she was found dead of alcohol poisoning in a fraternity house, officials said Friday.

Samantha Spady, 19, of Beatrice, Neb., had a blood-alcohol level of 0.436, well above the 0.400 level considered potentially lethal, deputy coroner Dean Beers said.

The death was ruled accidental and there was no sign of foul play, he said.

Police Detective Kristy Volesky said Spady began drinking at 6 p.m. on Sept. 5 and didn't stop until about 5 a.m. Sept. 6.

Investigators said Spady and some companions started drinking beer but switched to straight shots of vodka. He said Spady drank the equivalent of 30 to 40 12-ounce beers or one-ounce shots of liquor.

Police issued citations to 19 men and women this week for alcohol-related offenses in their investigation into Spady's death.

Dennis Harrison, chief of police in Fort Collins, speaks about the Samantha Spady case Friday. "I think there are a lot of people on the CSU campus who are thinking, 'That could have been me,' " he said.

http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/st...191935,00.html

The link above is to a story which details Samatha Spady's last day.

All of the Greek organizations at Colorado State have now mandated that all Greek Housing will be dry effective October 11. Additionally, the university has, at least temporarily, banned beer sales at Hughes Stadium for all CSU home football games.

Below is an edited version of a story about Sigma Pi's closing. It is from a Denver paper via Fraternal News.

Edited from the Rocky Mountain News:

Rocky Mountain News
Denver, CO
September 10, 2004

CSU SHUTTERS SIGMA PI FRATERNITY HOUSE;
DECISION FOLLOWS WOMAN'S DEATH, REPEATED VIOLATIONS

By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News, Staff writer Sarah Langbein contributed to this report.

FORT COLLINS -- Colorado State University officials, citing repeated violations of alcohol policies, disbanded the Fort Collins chapter of Sigma Pi fraternity on Thursday.

The move came just days after a young woman died in the fraternity house after ingesting a large amount of liquor, and just hours after the national Sigma Pi office revoked the chapter's charter for unspecified violations of its "risk-management" policies.

"We felt it was serious enough that we had to take action and enforce our policies," said Mark Briscoe, executive director of the national Sigma Pi office, who spent the past several days in Fort Collins investigating Samantha Spady's death.

Although the police investigation into Spady's death has not been completed, officials from the fraternity and CSU acknowledged they had enough evidence to take the action they did.

"We believe there's a piece of responsibility there," said Anne Hudgens, executive director of campus life at CSU.

The president of the chapter, Darren Pettapiece, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The death of Spady, a sophomore from Beatrice, Neb., marked the fourth incident involving alcohol at the fraternity in the past 15 months.

Spady was found dead Sunday in a converted bedroom on the second floor of the fraternity house.

Thursday's action was the first disbanding of a fraternity or sorority at CSU since a series of new rules governing Greek life on campus went into effect in 2002. Those rules allow alcohol in some fraternities but prohibit parties in any of the houses.

Fraternities and sororities that want to have parties are required to hold them at off-campus locations where alcohol use can be monitored.

Since the new rules went into effect, 32 violations have been reported to CSU's Greek Judicial Board. Of those, 26 were alcohol-related, and two of them involved Sigma Pi.

In one, the fraternity was sanctioned for organizing a party and serving alcohol in March. In the other, members were ticketed for a noise violation after an August party.

In addition, the university learned this week of an incident in July 2003 in which several Sigma Pi members allegedly attacked a man who mistakenly drove onto their lawn after getting lost.

(Edit: The man suffered a broken leg)

Hudgens, while declining to talk specifically about the circumstances of Spady's death, said that alcohol was the common denominator in all of the incidents.

A deposition in the civil lawsuit (brought by the injured man) paints a picture of a fraternity where alcohol was a part of life. Under questioning by an attorney for the injured man, Sigma Pi chapter adviser Brian Carnduff said it was considered OK to drink in the house - even among members under 21.

"It's preferred it's 21, but it's not really frowned upon if you're under," he said, according to a copy of the deposition obtained by the Rocky Mountain News. "It's college."

Sigma Pi can apply for reinstatement as a "colony" - or probationary chapter - at CSU in five years.

Following the national Sigma Pi organization's decision to revoke the local chapter's charter, the Greek Judicial Board recommended Thursday the university withdraw recognition of the fraternity.

The university followed the recommendation and the fraternity's Fort Collins chapter was dissolved.

Hudgens said Thursday's move reflected the context of incidents in the past 18 months. After the March episode, Sigma Pi members had to take classes on alcohol awareness and write a risk- management plan.

INFOBOX

Other houses on the outs

A look at fraternities and sororities shut down by Colorado State University officials in recent years:

In 1998, officials disbanded the Alpha Chi Omega sorority and the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity after members scrawled "I am gay" on a scarecrow on their homecoming float just days after Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, was tied to a fence like a scarecrow and beaten to death.

That same year, officials revoked the charter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity after repeated alcohol violations.

In 2000, officials dissolved the Sigma Nu fraternity for hazing and repeated alcohol violations.

In 2001, officials shut down the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity for repeated alcohol violations.

What rules did the fraternity actually break? Did they serve the girl or was she drinking somewhere else? Who provided her with the alcohol?

Max,

I edited the post above after you posted here. There is a link to a story which chronicles her movements during the day and night she died.

She was either given or bought drinks in a number of venues according to the police accounts, gathered from multiple witnesses.

The conclusion is that her final fatal spiril began after she returned to the Sigma Pi house for the second time.

It's a sad and scary story of someone who proclaimed on a web posting that she wanted to drink heavily -- and had done that before. Tragically this time turned out to be her last time.

Seriously, get a clue. I'm glad you find yourself to be some sort of expert on this case but honestly you need to get a clue and step off.

Chiodancer,

First, welcome to GC.

I'm not sure to whom you're addressing your comment, but for the most part posters have either simply posted information from the local newspapers and TV stations. A few have commented on them.

That's what happens here in the Risk Management Forum.

It's here to try to help by bringing these problems to light and either offering help or debate.

You will find that many of the participants are either alumni, volunteer advisors or others who have dealt with Risk Management issues in the past.

While we try to be dispassionate, these are topics which naturally hit a lot of people's "hot buttons." Generally, comments are welcome providing they don't break the Terms Of Service.

Please feel free to comment further, if you care to.

ChiOdancer, noting this is your # 1 post, maybe you do not realize that many of the Greeks on G C are Alums such as DeltAlum and many others.

Remember one thing, that We as Greek Alums and Greek Actives are all dismayed by any death of a Member of a Greek Organization no matter what reason. We just hope that something like any of these deaths and situations would never happen.

GC is for reporting facts no matter how bad they may seem and make us all feel destressed.:(

Remember, Bad News is good for the media, good news that We as Greeks do is not.:(

Many of us have been doing and working with our Chapters and Others over many years.

For me, almost 40 years. Does that give you a little more insight?

That story only goes from 6 pm to 8 pm. What about 8 pm to 5 am? Did the police ever determine if she was in a car accident? I think Sigma Pi is getting screwed. This girl was drunk by the time she got to Sigma Pi. The fraternity is going to be a scapegoat.

The Rocky Mountain News in the last day or so detailed the consumption of alcohol she had at the Sigma Pi house - several beers, as well as the better part of an entire bottle of vodka - that, in addition to the rest of alcohol consumed at two other locations prior to Sigma Pi, indicates she drank the equivalent of 30-40 beers in one day. A frightening amount of alcohol.

Sigma Pi may well be a scapegoat in this incident, but, then again, Sigma Pi was not "lilly-white" in their behavior prior to this incident. Couple that to a story like this hitting national news, and there really isn't much that could be done to save the chapter. Simply from a PR standpoint, when something bad hits the news, it will be a death sentence to the chapter in question in almost every instance.

Max,

Read the link at the top of the post. It goes from the beginning of her drinking until her death.

It also chronicles the car accident, which was apparantely very minor.

She was probably drunk by the time she got to the house, but then drank more beer and shots of hard liquor there. Then, according to reports, she became unable to walk and was basically incoherent.

She was at the house at least twice that day/night. It's a little difficult to decypher whether she drank there the first time.

At the very least, the people at the Sigma Pi house significantly contributed to the problem.

Here's part of the article that the link takes you to:

"Two hours later, Spady would make her final stop at Sigma Pi, a house where she had concluded drinking nights before by passing out, the police said.

Change in demeanor

Twenty-five people had gathered in the brick fraternity house near campus, and Spady switched back to beer.

But as the crowd dwindled to about 10 at 3:30 a.m., Spady began what would be her final descent. Taking swigs from one or two bottles of McCormick's vodka, the former Nebraska high school honor student and homecoming queen's demeanor changed. She became visibly drunk and slurred her speech, Deputy Coroner Beers said.

About an hour before sunrise, Spady could no longer stand. She couldn't make sense when she spoke.

Two men who didn't live in the fraternity house put Spady's arms around their necks and carried her to an unused bedroom converted into a lounge.

Her girlfriend, who would tell police she drank close to what Spady did, checked on her and then went back to her dorm room.

The last time Spady was seen alive, she was lying on a couch on her stomach, using her hands to cushion her head, police said.

"We don't know if she was alive an hour or two beyond that point," Beers said.

In Spady's last moments, she slipped into unconsciousness, went into a coma and died. Beers said a blood-alcohol level of 0.4 is considered lethal."