Pi Kappa Alpha New Member Drowns at U of Nevada

[DWAlphaGam]

Just in case you haven't heard:

From http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20021011_403.html

Pledge Drowns in Lake on Campus
Freshman Pledge Drowns in Lake on University of Nevada, Reno, Campus

The Associated Press

RENO, Nev. Oct. 11 —
RENO, Nev. (AP) A freshman at the University of Nevada, Reno, drowned in Manzanita Lake during an outing with his fraternity's pledge class, school police said.

They said Albert Jerome Refuerzo Santos, 18, of Las Vegas, was part of a group of Pi Kappa Alpha pledges who were at the lake just past 2 a.m. Thursday.

"Our patrol officers received a call from dispatch that there was a person in the lake that they could not find," UNR Police Sgt. Marc Conley said.

Police Lt. Todd Renwick said that while members of the Washoe County Hasty Team searched the murky lake, campus officers checked the surrounding area to make sure nobody was hiding in bushes.

Divers recovered the body about two hours later.

Renwick said the county coroner's office ruled that Santos died from drowning. Toxicology test results were expected to take 5-8 days or longer.

Renwick said indications were that other members of the group had been in the lake, but he did not know how many. Temperatures were in the mid 50s.

He said witness interviews were expected to continue through Friday and possibly into Saturday.

"Our No. 1 priority is to rebuild this whole incident and to find out what happened," he said.

University spokesman John Trent said the fraternity had no problems in the past.

There are 10 other fraternities and four sororities on the campus. They have suspended all activities for at least a week.

A law passed by the 1999 Nevada Legislature makes hazing illegal at high schools and universities.

In October 1975, student John Davies died after a three-day drinking binge that was part of a Sundowners initiation. An autopsy determined he had a blood alcohol content of 0.421 more than four times the limit at which Nevada law presumes a person to be under the influence.


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