From the Rocky Mountain News:
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CSU frat house tragedy
Female student had blood-alcohol level 5 times legal limit
By Sarah Langbein and Ann Carnahan, Rocky Mountain News
September 7, 2004
FORT COLLINS - A Colorado State University student found dead at a fraternity house had a blood-alcohol concentration more than five times the legal limit for drivers in Colorado, a police source said Monday.
Samantha Spady, 19, a sophomore business major from Nebraska, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.43 percent, the source said.
A Sigma Pi fraternity brother giving his mom a tour of the house at 709 Wagner Drive on Sunday found Spady fully clothed on the floor of a second-story lounge.
Police believe she may have been dead for 12 hours before authorities were called.
There were no signs of trauma to her body, and she was not sexually assaulted, police said.
The high school homecoming queen, class president and cheerleader moved from Beatrice, Neb., to Fort Collins nearly a year ago on the advice of friends.
Adam Tatro, 23, and Chase Bruhn, 22, friends from high school who attended the University of Northern Colorado, suggested to Spady she attend college in Colorado, they said Monday.
"We told Sam this was a great place - get away from all of the crap in Beatrice," Bruhn said. "She thought it was a great place."
The men described her as a bright young woman - innocent and sweet.
"She was a friend who definitely had more to offer," Tatro said. "It's a disappointment."
Bruhn last spoke to Spady on Thursday or Friday through an instant message conversation on the Internet. Bruhn asked her about weekend plans.
"She was going to hang out," he said. "There were some parties."
Police are looking into the possibility that Spady and a friend were involved in a single-car accident during the weekend on Harmony Road. Officials believe that Spady was drunk at the time, abandoned her car and called a member of Sigma Pi for a ride.
It's unclear whether Spady continued to drink at the fraternity house, just west of campus, before she was escorted to the sofa-filled lounge to sleep off the alcohol, police said.
People occasionally checked in on Spady, saying that she was unresponsive, but they thought she was passed out.
After the discovery of Spady's death, Sigma Pi brothers were asked to leave the two-story, brick house for the night, and the flag was flown at half- staff.
"This is something a lot of us haven't dealt with before, a close personal friend dying," said Darren Pettapiece, president of the Sigma Pi chapter at CSU. "We're a close group of friends who will be there for each other no matter what."
Spady's four roommates at their home near campus declined to speak about their friend.
Members of Chi Omega sorority, which Spady had resigned from, wore blue ribbons.
"The university counseling center is making these (ribbons) and distributing them around campus," said Lindsay Sharp, president of Chi Omega chapter. "They were passing them out in light of this, just a bad thing for the Greek community in general. We're all just pulling together."
CSU sent counselors to speak with students and their families.
Tatro and Bruhn drove from Greeley to the fraternity house Monday, looking for answers.
They wanted to know how this happened and why no one took Spady to the hospital.
There has to be more to the story, they said.
"This just doesn't seem like her at all," Tatro said. "Sam, she was a smart girl. If you knew her at all through high school, she wasn't getting in trouble. She wasn't out doing stupid things. She was an all- around nice girl. This was out of character."
Bruhn added, "She was the one who knew when to go home when she knew she'd had too much (to drink)."
The men were upset by brief laughter coming from members of the fraternity, who had been somber for most of the day. "It's disturbing," Tatro said. "They seem to be having a good time. Someone died in their house."