Posted on 06/20/2007 7:58:02 AM PDT by kellynla
Laura Dickinson was always close to her family members, working beside them in their coffee shop in Hastings, Mich. Even when she was away at college at Eastern Michigan University, she spoke to her parents and boyfriend every day.
So when Laura didn't return a couple of calls in December, her parents, Bob and Deb Dickinson, thought it was strange but chalked it up to the hectic end of the semester.
"I called her on Wednesday and there was no answer," Bob said.
But after a few days, when she still hadn't called, they began to worry and called university officials, asking them to check on their daughter.
Then Bob and Deb received the worst possible news: A dorm custodian had discovered Laura's body in her room after several of her neighbors complained about an odor.
"It was pretty devastating," Bob said. "I don't know if there's a gentle way to say that."
The official word from Eastern Michigan University was that Laura had died of natural causes, that somehow the healthy 22-year-old had been killed by a freak accident.
"They said there was no evidence of foul play," Laura's mother, Deb, said.
Murder Investigation Kept Under Wraps For 10 weeks, Laura's family and friends mourned her death and believed that it was indeed a horrible accident.
The student body was assured by school officials that the campus was safe.
But in February, the Dickinsons and campus received shocking news: Orange Amir Taylor, also a student at Eastern Michigan, had been arrested and charged with raping and murdering Laura.
"This was not a freak event, but a tragedy, a murder on our campus," said Tom Sidlik, chairman of the Michigan Board of Regents, which oversees the school.
It turns out that police and school officials had been quietly investigating Laura's death for weeks, but had never told the student body that they suspected a murder had been committed on campus and that the murderer was still at large.
"They're absolutely incorrect. The university got it wrong. It's unacceptable behavior of the university administration," Sidlik said.
By keeping the investigation secret, Eastern Michigan University violated a federal law, known as the Jean Clery Act, which is named for a student killed on another college campus. The law says that colleges must inform the campus community about crimes that are considered to be a threat to students and employees.
Travis Scott, Laura's boyfriend, questioned why the campus community wasn't informed about the threat.
It's a haunting reminder of the massacre at Virginia Tech, where parents and students weren't informed of the mental troubles of student Seung-Hui Cho because of state privacy laws. Cho fatally shot 32 people at the school before killing himself.
Taylor currently is being held without bail and is scheduled to be tried in the fall in Ann Arbor.
The Michigan Board of Regents commissioned an independent investigation into Laura's death. The almost-600-page report states, "The facts show that the University failed to timely and properly warn the campus community about Ms. Dickinson's death, which was unquestionably a possible homicide."
The school did not discuss the matter with ABC News and referred reporters to the Board of Regents. But said John Fallon, president of Eastern Michigan University apologized to his board of regents Tuesday for the university's handling of the case.
"I apologized to you and say ... never again will such a confounding series of mistakes be made on my watch," Fallon said.
Sidlik has apologized for the school's failure to be more forthright, but he denied the school had engaged in a cover-up and insisted mistakes were made because of ignorance of the Clery Act.
But these revelations come all too late for a family that has lost its only daughter.
"It's still hard for me to believe that she's gone. How could this have happened?" Laura's mother, Deb, said.
They’re not saying much about the perp. And he is still innocent until proven otherwise.
This story is distrubing. It states that the investigators were able to arrest the perp based on a DNA match from semen at the scene. I wonder how they had his DNA on file? Do all students provide a DNA sample? Or was this guy a prior offender and this is why his DNA was known.
I wonder if the unversity knowingly admitted a convicted criminal and, if so, shouldn’t prospective students and parents be informed of covicted criminals in the student body?
uh... didn’t they match is dna in the semen on her leg?
guilty
Where’d you get that tidbit? I googled and all I’m seeing is the EMU being slammed for not alerting the ‘campus community’ - what do you know about the guy? Was he even a student there?
Do I get to guess that with a middle name of “AMIR” this guy isn’t Irish?????
What was he doing on the campus in the first place?
I am done with “students” coming from terrorist nations to this country to “study”.
Send “professors” there is their education beyond the 7th century is that important to them.
Are you implying that the university deliberately misled the media so that the perp could be captured?
http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=6306850
he was a student, had a criminal history but they still let him take classes there. They found him using the vid-cams and dna tested him. He was a neighbor
Two points here:
1. If any of us have a child in a major university and they become a victim of violence, murder or kidnapping, the campus clown Kops will not do anything to find the perps. Their job is to protect the university’s flow of money from the parents of other students.
2. If the perp is a protected PC pervert member, the Kampus Klown Kops and administration will bury any reality of the case. Like in this situation:
“But in February, the Dickinsons and campus received shocking news: Orange Amir Taylor, also a student at Eastern Michigan, had been arrested and charged with raping and murdering Laura.”
Orange Amir ring any bells for anyone.
Here is a slideshow of the poor girl She was on the school’s rowing team:
http://www.clickondetroit.com/slideshow/slideshows/13205352/detail.html
“but I meant it took this long for the truth about it to come out. That had nothing to do with the races of the two people?”
It took so long for it to come out because the university officials are idiots and they didn’t want the public to know there had been a rape/murder on campus. I seriously doubt it had the slightest thing to do with race. And I’m certain there’s no way the MSM knew it was a rape/murder for weeks and refused to report it because a black man was the perp. That’s just paranoid sillyness.
“That’s just paranoid sillyness”
Well, this sort of thing is news to me as well, I’ve only recently found out about a lot of stories that I had never known. Truth is, you get a duke rape case, or a tawana brawley (sp?), and it’s all over the news for years, and they come to nothing, but the things that happen every day, we aren’t told because there are things the msm don’t want us to see.
http://www.newnation.org/NNN-Black-on-White.html
It’s just the way the world works. I wish we lived in a giant Disneyland too. I mean, people can flood into this coun try at will, and flaunt our good laws. Why not rape and murder too? Our laws only mean things to some.
Actually, in the link from slappy, the man’s name is not “Taylor” but “Talor” and I think maybe “Orange” had no “e” so it’s altogether possible this guy is NOT an African American.
I’m thinking it’s possible this didn’t receive more attention due to cries that only the ‘bad stuff to white women’ gets reported. It’s a valid question, any way you slice it.
It’s Talor in one place and Taylor in another. Everything else spells it Taylor. In other words, Talor is a typo. And I’ve never seen Orang in the stories.
This is one Fallon who needs to be gonged.
This story was featured on the O’Reilly show on Fox last night too. I don’t believe it’s on the website yet.
What is the excuse for witholding this information from the girl’s parents?
So, did they fire the lacrosse coach, or what?
resigned
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