http://www.boston.com/dailynews/296/...re_blin:.shtml
Students say 6 women were blindfolded in car at time of accident
By Associated Press, 10/23/2003 09:04
PLYMOUTH, N.H. (AP) Six of the 10 Plymouth State University women involved in a fatal crash this week were blindfolded when they left a house that served as headquarters for an unrecognized sorority, a newspaper reported Thursday.
The blindfolded women were new pledges who had no idea where they were being taken, two of the women who were in the crash told the Concord Monitor. The university is looking into allegations that the trip was part of a hazing, or induction, ritual.
''I thought they were mad at us,'' student Valerie Levine said, ''and we were going to, like, a punishment. ''
Two sorority sisters sat in the front seat of Jeep Cherokee, the women said. The second seat was folded down, and eight women six pledges and two sisters were crowded into the back, they told the newspaper.
The woman who died in Monday night's crash, Kelly Nester, 20, was believed to be one of the pledges.
Police Capt. Steve Temperino confirmed that Nester, of Coventry, R.I., was killed when she and another woman were thrown from the vehicle through the rear hatch window.
He said a preliminary investigation showed that neither alcohol nor drugs was a factor. The preliminary investigation also determined that speed wasn't a factor, either, he said.
Temperino told The Citizen of Laconia that reports about the blindfolding are not part of the police investigation.
''I'm investigating a motor vehicle accident and that's all,'' he said, indicating it was up to the university to look into allegations of possible hazing.
Dean of Students Tim Keefe said if hazing was involved, some of the women may face school disciplinary charges. Students involved in hazing can be suspended or expelled.
University officials said four of the women had been members of Alpha Sigma Alpha, one of the university's two authorized sororities, but had left that organization to form their own non-sanctioned sorority, Sigma Kappa Omega.
The university, which has 3,800 undergraduates, has four sororities and three fraternities that are nationally chartered.
Temperino said not all of the nine surviving students have been interviewed.
He said he is trying to contact some of the women and has asked those interviewed at Speare Memorial Hospital the night of the accident to come to the police station for additional interviews.
''They were upset following the accident over the death of their friend,'' he said. ''We need to talk to them again now that they've had a chance to calm down.''
Temperino said police also are awaiting the results of the autopsy report on Nester, as well as tests of blood samples from the driver.
A funeral Mass for Nester was scheduled for Friday in Rhode Island and a memorial service was planned for Monday at the school.
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