Woman Found Dead in Frat House
Sept. 8, 2004 -- -- In high school, Samantha Spady was an honors student, homecoming queen, class president and captain of the cheerleading squad -- an uncommon young woman who police believe fell victim to the most common killer on college campuses: alcohol.
Spady, who friends said was popular in high school and a natural leader, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.43 percent, more than five times the legal limit for driving in Colorado, when her body was found Sunday at a Colorado State University fraternity house, according to a report in The Rocky Mountain News, which cited anonymous sources.
The 19-year-old sophomore's body was found in an unused room at the Sigma Pi fraternity house, Fort Collins Police Department spokeswoman Rita Davis said. Autopsy results showed no signs of physical trauma, the young woman was not sexually assaulted and foul play is not suspected, but Davis said investigators believe alcohol contributed to Spady's death.
Toxicology tests are also planned, but the results will not be known for 10 days, police said.
If alcohol was to blame for her death, Spady fell victim to a killer that is blamed for the deaths of 1,400 college students per year, according to figures from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Police at Princeton University, the University of Michigan and McGill University in Montreal are also investigating the unexplained deaths of students found on those campuses over the weekend. There was no immediate indication that alcohol played a role in any of those deaths.
About 500,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are injured annually while under the influence of alcohol, more than 600,000 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking and more than 70,000 students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape, according to the NIAAA.
A new study released of college student alcohol abuse found that binge drinking is usually at its worst among younger students and at the beginning of the school year.
