Experience the full story here.
Four students died this semester, three in a 15-day period.
Somewhere between balancing private grief and public concern, the campus community is left wondering: How many students die, and what causes their deaths? IU doesn’t always have the answers.
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Donna MacLafferty was falling asleep when the phone rang at 11 p.m. It was her ex-husband, asking about their son. “Have you heard from Brian?” Brian was an IU senior majoring in neuroscience. It was September, only the third week of fall classes, and Donna hadn’t talked to him that day. Neither had Brian’s girlfriend, who had been frantically trying to contact him. He hadn’t returned her calls or texts.
Now, as midnight approached, Brian’s girlfriend was outside his apartment, banging on the door. No answer. The windows were dark, and his car was parked nearby. Brian’s dad was calling 911.
At her home outside Indianapolis, Donna tried not to think of the worst. But as the minutes ticked by, she knew something was wrong.
After what felt like an eternity, the phone rang again. This time it was a police officer.“I’m sorry,” Donna recalls him telling her, “but Brian committed suicide.”
Brian’s mother knelt on the floor and laid her head on her bed. She was in so much shock that she didn’t know how to feel.
“It’s just this ... Oh my gosh,” she said. “Oh my gosh, he is dead. He is never coming back.”
