True Crime with Kimbyr - Deaf Student's Dreams Shattered: The Tragic Case of Eric Plunkett

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

In this episode of True Crime with Kimbyr, we uncover the inspiring yet heartbreaking story of Eric Plunkett, a resilient young man born deaf and with cerebral palsy. Despite his challenges, Eric thrived, graduating with honors and dreaming of attending the prestigious Gallaudet University for the deaf. But his promising future was cut tragically short under mysterious circumstances. Join Kimbyrleigha as she delves into Eric's life, his impact on the deaf community, and the shocking events that ended his journey far too soon. Don’t miss this emotional and thought-provoking story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

College. It's that first exciting step towards independence, meeting new friends, and starting a career. Freshmen are excited to start this brand new chapter of their lives. They excitedly wave goodbye to their parents, hoping that the next four years will be filled with new adventures, new relationships, and of course, obtaining a degree to propel them forward in life. But for two college freshmen, their lives wouldn't go forward at all. They would be cut short, way too soon. soon. And this is their story. Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. If you've never been here before, I'm Kimberlea. Nice to finally meet you. Today we are getting into our very first fall fright mirrors case, also another one of my college killing series sadly. Now let's get into the case for today. The first person that I want to introduce you to is the friendly, fun-loving

Eric Franklin Plunkett. Eric was born on September 8th, 1981 in Portland, Oregon. And he had an older sister Aaron who absolutely adored him. His mother, Kathleen Louise McMahon and father Craig Melvin Plunkett, first met when they lived out in California. Kathleen had actually just graduated from Grant High School in Van Nuys and went to UCLA, where she majored in public service. Craig attended South Fork High School and went to graduate from the Oregon Polytechnic Institute of Science and Engineering. In 1971, they had an exciting Las Vegas wedding. When they were freshly married and in love, Craig and Kathleen planned to move to Sepulva, Los Angeles, which is now called North Hills. They were ready to start their careers.

However, life took them in a new direction, and doesn't it do that sometimes? The beautiful bustling city of Portland, Oregon, where Kathleen and Craig could both dedicate their time to their careers and building a family. Kathleen welcomed a sweet, curly-haired daughter named Aaron Louise Plunkett, taking Kathleen's middle name, And then in 1980, Kathleen was overjoyed to find out she was pregnant once again. However, halfway through this pregnancy, Kathleen started to feel very sick. And unfortunately, she was infected with the Rubella virus. Rubella is also called the German measles, and it's pretty scary. It can cause anything from mild symptoms like a rash and a low-grade fever to things that are much more dangerous,

especially for a pregnant woman. One of those things is an increase of miscarriages, stillbirths, or changes during the baby's development. And of course, that can be very terrifying. I know that it's personal, but let me know if you've experienced anything like this. In my last video, I asked a question like this, and I really like reading all of your responses and getting to know more about you. So thank you for being open. And I had no idea about this, but apparently, from what I've read, if the fetus gets through Bella during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, the baby will likely be born with many health-related issues.

such as deafness, cataracts, heart defects, brain disorders, mental retardation, bone alterations, liver, and spleen damage. And that's really terrifying. And if the fetus gets rebelled between 12 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, the problems are usually milder, but could still be present. So it's a concerning time for expecting mothers when they get sick like this. In Kathleen's case, she was able to treat her symptoms and her unborn baby appeared to be unharmed. Back in the 80s, prenatal screenings were not.

not that comprehensive as they are today. Back then, the common practice was using an ultrasound to estimate how far along woman was, or just to identify whether there was one baby or multiples. They could also identify any major malformations that they could detect on a scan. These were typically spina bifida, or a condition where the baby is missing part of their brain,

a heart defect, and cleft palate. I'm telling you all this for a reason. These days, the tests are much more precise. They can detect over 400 genetic conditions. Eric was born on September 8, 1981, and the family was relieved and excited to have a healthy new baby boy. But when Eric was about three months old, Kathleen started to notice something, and she thought it was peculiar, especially already being a mother of Aaron and watching her progress through

all the early stages of life, she wondered if Eric could have trouble hearing. She realized that he didn't really react to loud noises and he had some problems with certain motor skills. And it's true that some babies do grow at a different rate, so not every experience will be the same. But since Kathleen was concerned, she took Eric to the doctor. Ultimately, Eric's pediatrician did diagnose him with a mild form of cerebral palsy. And this affected his functioning in his legs as well as profound deafness. In case you're not familiar with cerebral palsy, because I've heard of it, but I wasn't too well versed on it. It's known as a developmental disability, and it affects the movement and posture and coordination.

It's caused by damage or abnormal development in parts of the brain that control movement and it can be mild, moderate, or severe, from not needing any assistance at all to requiring leg braces or other medical devices to being in a wheelchair and unable to function on your own. And sadly, there is no cure for it. Eric's case was mild, now profound deafness.

That basically means when someone has a total lack of hearing and is not able to detect any sound at all, including human speech. It falls under the umbrella, a very large umbrella, of different types of hearing loss. This would come as a shock to most parents, but there are resources to help. And after the doctor's advice, Kathleen enrolled Eric in infant hearing classes and early childhood education programs. This would help him learn sign language. Eric was also fitted for hearing aids before he turned one year old,

and his parents began learning American sign language so that they could communicate with their new baby. It's definitely life-changing to bring another human being into this world, but even more so when you have additional challenges like learning a new language. Now, while the entire family learned sign language, Eric's big sister Aaron learned it faster than everybody else, and this helped them to develop a very special bond. I know you know this if you've been here, but I care very deeply about the people that I talk about in these videos,

and I want to be able to relate to them as much as I can. I like to know who they were and what they went through in life. That is what drew me to Eric's story. I wanted to understand what it's like to be a deaf person. And by the way, I made sure to look towards individuals from the deaf community before working on this case. And the preferred word to refer to them was either deaf or hard of hearing. Other ways can be offensive. But keep in mind, it's always up to the individual.

I'm going to be referring to Eric as deaf. Also, if you know about Anthony, Tony Hughes, he was one of Jeffrey Dahmer's victims and he was also deaf. and that left a very big impact for me when I was learning about Tony. But back to Eric now. An interesting thing I learned is that deaf individuals usually get two names. Their birth name, like we all have, and then they also get a special name sign that's given to them as they get older

and usually assigned by the deaf community. In Eric's case, even though his parents were hearing, they gave Eric a sign for his name. Now it's debated whether that's appropriate for a hearing person to assign a name sign. But as the deaf person gets older, they can decide to change it. It's really supposed to be given by friends,

someone that's close to you in the deaf community, and it usually refers to a special trait that that person exhibits. For Eric's parents, they would sign the ASL letter E over their hearts. And that was Eric's special sign name like this. 90% of death individuals are born into hearing family, so it's not entirely uncommon for them to be given a name sign

by their family. Eric was an incredibly bright and outgoing kid. Kathleen remembers how motivated he was to communicate, and he quickly picked up ASL. Eric always found creative ways to help people understand what he was trying to say. If someone didn't know sign language, he could read their lips or write them notes. Eric also had a very good support system. Kathleen and Craig worked hard to enroll Eric in ASL classes

and help him get all the resources he needed in the Portland Public School District. Eric was a big dreamer. He was very independent from a young age. And even though he would have trouble balancing because of his cerebral palsy, if he fell, he would get right back up and try again. This resilience went way beyond the physical struggles he overcame. Any challenge was accepted by Eric with an attitude of perseverance. Once he turned 12, Eric told his parents that he wanted to go to a boarding school in Salem, Oregon,

meaning he would be spending five days a week on campus sleeping in a dorm. The boarding school was called OSD, the Oregon School for the Deaf, and Eric would still be able to visit his sister and his parents on the weekends. Many deaf individuals can feel like they're an outcast, even in their own home, because they're living with hearing. So being among people like them can be very comforting. Imagine being in a normal public school where no one spoke your language. It's truly hard to feel like you can connect with someone. Kathleen remembers how hard it was to let her baby go off into the world at such a young age.

But Eric was thriving and she knew that this would strengthen him as a person. He was a huge social butterfly. He loved being able to connect with other deaf students and just all kinds of people. He also loved being deaf. Whenever Eric went to the mall with his mom, for example, with his mom, for example, he would tell her, it must be incredibly loud. And he was like, I'm glad, I can't hear it. And I love that.

Some people are naturally so positive and uplifting, seeing the good in everything that others could possibly see as a negative. Kathleen and Craig's lives were going in separate directions at this time, and they got a divorce in the 90s, which was pretty hard on their children. Eric was going through a lot of changes, but he went with the flow, and he was soon blessed with an even bigger family. and a bunch of steps of siblings. In March of 1996, when Eric was 14, his dad married Lois, Gene Netherton. Lois had two daughters and a son from a previous marriage, Denise, Lori, and Tim. Whenever Eric wasn't busy with school, he loved spending time with them in Oregon. This is a picture of him with Denise and Lori on his birthday,

where they celebrated with a pizza party. While Craig had this new relationship with Lois, Kathleen began dating Christopher Wayne Cornell's, a business owner who was a great dad to her kids. But Eric, being so attached to his mother, he definitely had a hard time accepting this new man in their life. Change can be hard. But over time, Eric grew to love Chris and his stepmother, Lois. In 1997, Kathleen got a job offer in Minnesota working for U.S. Bank before committing to moving.

15-year-old Eric decided that he was going to travel by himself to Minnesota to see if he liked it. Yes, I can't even imagine. This boy is so brave. He booked train tickets and spent an entire weekend exploring the city by himself. Eric had been bit by the travel bug, and he had been on vacations to Florida, Colorado, and California by this time. Every Christmas, he put plane tickets on his wish list, and I thought that was such a great idea that I've never thought of. I just started traveling this year, and like Eric, I want to go everywhere. He had a lot of places on his list.

When it had Canada, Rome, Italy, and especially New York City, which, I love. I love New York. Eric was fearless, passionate, and excited to move somewhere new. With Eric's enthusiasm and approval, Eric, Aaron, Chris, and Kathleen packed up for Burnsville, Minnesota, where Kathleen eventually got married to Chris in February of 1998. And soon Kathleen's life got even busier because she was bouncing work and a new pregnancy. The family welcomed Eric's baby sister Shannon in August of 1999. While Eric's family grew around him, he flourished at the the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf, another boarding school for deaf high schoolers.

The school was a close-knit community of 100 K through 12 students, and again, this school helped Eric thrive. Students formed these tight bonds since they were used to growing up with peers who didn't understand their language. The principal even recalled that Eric wanted to study psychology, and he said, quote, Eric thought that he could help others deal

with the problems of being deaf in a hearing world, because he lived with those problems. And with his personality, he would have been good. at it." Eric took academics very seriously. He had his eyes set on going to college, but not just any college, the number one university for the deaf called Gallaudet University. It's actually the very first school in the world that offered an advanced education for deaf

and hard of hearing individuals. All of their programs are specifically designed to cater to the deaf and the heart of hearing students. So Eric had a lifelong dream of getting accepted there one day. He was dedicated to his studies and he continued living living. at the Minnesota State Academy for the deaf five days a week in a dorm room and spent the weekends with his family. Eric's high school friends remember him as how going, adventurous, and an ambitious student. He was tall and skinny with a huge smile, and he loved to box dye his hair by himself.

Who didn't growing up? I loved Faria. I think that's what it's called Faria by Lauriel. I love the dark red. Eric liked to lighten his hair to a blondeish color. In pictures you can see Eric rocking his bleach blonde and red hair and another character trait that Eric had was he loved being dramatic. He never let anyone blossom around. One time Kathleen asked him just to rake the leaves on the weekend and he laid down in the leaves and was protesting, acting like it was the entire world ending because she'd asked him to do one chore. But even though Eric had the silly side, he was a hard worker and eventually graduated in May 2000 with honors. He was actually salutatorian of his class. Besides that distinguished honor, Eric also received several awards,

the Farabal American Legion Award, the U.S. Bank High School Award, and the American Citizen Award. These awards recognize Eric's academic excellence, his community commitment, and public service dedication. In the spring of 2000, Eric dreamed of nothing more than getting into the one and only school that he applied to, the prestigious Gallaudet University. Gallaudet was and is a prestigious liberal arts college in Washington, D.C.

Most of the world's research on deafness is performed at this university campus. The university puts out a ton of resources for people in the deaf community. It's kind of known as the mecca for deaf students. It's the place to be. And each year, Gallaudet University accepts just a limited number of applicants. It has a very rigorous admissions process and requires applicants to demonstrate high academic excellence and leadership skills. I also saw that the university partnered with AT&T to create the first ever accessible

helmet for the deaf and hard of hearing quarterbacks. And that's pretty awesome. This helmet allows coaches on the sideline to select a play from a tablet, and then it will send it to a lens that's inside the helmet, and then it will show an augmented reality display in the visor. And that is out of this world. Like technology is advancing at such a fast pace. This helps make sports more inclusive and accessible.

Before my research, I had actually been following a deaf influencer Shiana Clearbrook, a deaf influencer on Instagram, but she's more than that. She's a mother, she's an inspiration, and she appeared in the Netflix series, DeafU. It actually features Gallaudet University, and it provided me so much insight into that culture and what it's like in the deaf community. As I continue to grow as a person, I highly recommend watching shows like DeafU because it opened my eyes to things I never thought of, like Deaf-friendly aspects of everyday life and the lack thereof.

They have to think about, for example, how they sit at a table with another Deaf person or someone they're signing to. They need to position themselves so they can see one another's hands. Or like when a waiter who's not being conscientious, they just don't know, and they put maybe like a bottle down

or something in front of their hands, they just set it down in front of them blocking their view to the person. And when they're sitting in a group, they sit in a circle that everybody can see each other's hands. The first episode I watched was of two deaf women getting their nails done,

and of course they couldn't communicate with one another because their hands weren't free. I also realized that without subtitles, I wouldn't have been able to understand it because I don't know ASL. And that hit me. It's so important to have subtitles on my videos and I'm still working on that.

I'm trying my best, so I apologize. Sometimes my videos take a little bit longer to process. But most importantly, my videos are about getting to know and understand the people that these stories are about. I want to find out who these people are, what they loved, and how they lived before they died. It's never and should never be just about how they died. So in the early 2000s, Gallaudet had about 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

The 99-acre campus was actually located in a high-crime neighborhood in Washington, D.C. It's about a 12-minute drive from the U.S. Capitol. It was known as the nation's murder capital, with 482 homicides occurring in 1991, and during the late 1980s in early 1990s, the crack cocaine epidemic resulted in even more increase in crime. But despite what was going on outside, the college felt like its own little safe island. It was surrounded by a 10-foot-high iron gate. With one main entrance to the campus, it was full of cute, red brick buildings, bright green lawns, and beautiful statues. When you were inside those gates, it was easy to forget what was happening

on the outside. The moment the students drove in, they entered a visually based paradise. Gallaudet students came from all over the world to study there. Now, I want you to take a moment and think about your college experience, your school experience. The moment you sit down at your desk, and the bell rings and the intercom goes on, suddenly there's morning announcements, they're blasting over the speaker. You're trying to tune out all the information about after-school activities while your friends are telling you all about their weekend. Maybe you'd even stand up and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

And then the teacher looks over and tells you all to stop chatting, and get out your textbooks and your day begins. But now imagine how isolating this might feel if you can't hear the announcements. You can't hear the chit-chat, the whispers behind you or participate in class the same way as your friends. I told you that 90% of deaf individuals are born into hearing families.

They have to learn to speak, read lips, or strain to hear. Not only is it exhausting, but it's just so much harder to feel present and supported in your community, especially when people don't think about accommodations. I can imagine how lonely that would feel. At Gallaudet, it's easier to connect. You can ask for what you need and get your studies done

without being exhausted at the end of the day. The campus is built for deaf individuals and even blind students so that everyone starts on a level playing field. When Gallaudet professors under a classroom, they actually flick a light switch on and off to announce that they just came in. And that's smart. I never thought of that before. Students are always given the option of subtitles. note-taking services, interpretation, and extended exam times.

In the 2000, students attached two-way pagers to their belt loops, and they would vibrate with messages instead of ringing like cell phones. I've even learned a lot about the iPhone and its accessibility mode, and if you have never seen, the way it can flash when a text comes in or a call comes in, even in different patterns for different contexts in your phone, it's brilliant.

Gallaudet is a truly magical place. Everywhere you look on campus, people are doing activities. They're having these animated conversations. And for Eric, it was his dream. He applied knowing it was the only school he wanted to go and he eagerly awaited his acceptance letter. Kathleen ended up opening it. While he was at boarding school,

she wanted to save him the disappointment just in case it was a rejection. When she found out that he'd gotten accepted though, she could not wait to tell him. Kathleen and Chris drove out to meet Eric at the school lobby, holding his acceptance letter and about of balloons and Eric screamed, he jumped up and down with excitement, and it was a magical moment for him. And I can imagine that excitement. He had his acceptance letter framed. That's how much

it meant to him to get into Gallaudet. He proudly promised his mom that in four years, he would put his diploma on top of that acceptance letter the moment he graduated college, so that he would have his proudest moments in one place. Eric spent that summer excitedly getting ready for the best four years of his life. And in August before he left for school, Eric bought his older sister Aaron a nice camera so they could keep in touch over the internet. It was going to be hard being away from his family. He had to say goodbye to everyone, especially his little sister Shannon, who was only about one when he embarked on this long trip from Minnesota to Washington, D.C., with Kathleen and Chris in his gigantic collection of movies, which eventually would make him very popular on campus.

Remember VHS? That's what he had. Beautiful sunny fall day, 18-year-old Eric moved into Cogswell Hall along with 150 other freshman students. It was a four-story residence hall on the far west side of Gallaudet's campus, and there was a twin building right next door to it called Krogh Hall. Rooms are furnished with beds, dressers, desks, chairs, and closets. There was also a television in a study lounge available on each floor. Eric moved his bags into room 101, a single dorm in the men's wing.

He decorated the walls with pictures of his family and his little sister. and took final pictures with Kathleen to add to that collection. When she finally had to say goodbye, she felt all the emotions. She was watching her baby boy go off to college. She kept turning around and looking at Eric as she walked away. She was overjoyed and overwhelmed. Each time she turned around,

Eric would sign, Don't worry about me, I'll be all right. This was the last thing he would ever sign to her in person. We all take in these special moments, but we never think. they're going to be as significant as they can be sometimes, especially when it's for the worst reasons. But at the time, Eric was thrilled to start classes.

He wasted no time jumping into his studies and getting involved in extracurricular activities. He wanted to be a psychiatrist. Even though he was living in a single room, he always had his door open so that other students at Cogswell Hall could walk in and just hang out. He would even let people borrow whatever they wanted from his music and movie collection.

He even shared items from his care packages that his mom sent from home, and here is going to be one of those big boxes with ramen in it. His generosity made him very popular with people in his dorm. No one was a stranger to Eric. He would walk up and introduce himself to anyone and everyone. He loved showing off pictures of his family, especially his little sister. And every time he got a new picture sent to him,

he would wave his friends down and tell them, come see, come see. He just sounds like such a genuinely kind person. College can also be some students first time away from home. Now, Eric had some experience because he went to boarding schools, but to help ease them into this new and the dorm has residents assistants who act as a resource and even as a friend to new students. They also make sure that the rules and regulations are being followed. Now Cogswell Hall had a female and a male RA for each floor. On the first floor where Eric was, they had two RAs, Lauren Bucco and Thomas Koch. And they acted like a stand-in big brother and sister to the group of new freshmen. Now the residents of Cogswell Hall were fun. They were a rowdy group from all across the nation and even the globe. And Eric fit right in. Now, Cogsville Hall was pretty secluded.

Students like to call it the while while West because of its isolation from the other dorm rooms and because it was on the west side of campus. This was a good thing. It meant that the students in this hall formed very close friendships. On September 8th, Eric celebrated his 19th birthday with his new college friends.

His closest friend was Thomas Minch. Thomas was a theater kid. He lived in a different residence hall, Crogg Hall nearby, but the two of them shared several classes together. Thomas was a native of New Hampshire. He loved the outdoors, and he was saving money for a new Ford Explorer. Now, Eric thought Thomas was so funny and so cool that he introduced him to his Wild Wild West group.

Eric also spent a lot of time hanging out at the Abbey, the closest campus cafe, and he usually ate lunch with a couple of other new friends, Benjamin Varner, a quiet student who lived on the first floor of Cogswell Hall with him, and Joseph Mesa Jr., who also lived on the first floor in Room 102 directly across from Eric's room. I'm doing this because I think it's important to talk a little bit about the people who eventually made up Eric's close circle of friends. They're all very interesting and they're all part of his story. Benjamin, who was also known as Ben, was 19 years old. He was born in San Antonio, Texas.

And although he was shy and he had kind of a withdrawn personality, he was very kind and he was an extremely intelligent person. He was the complete opposite of Eric when it came to socializing. He would rather go straight to his room and read. He had a 4.0 GPA and his hobbies were reading, writing, and learning, about the world. So, you know, Eric has some very interesting friends and now 20-year-old Joseph was originally from Guam and he showed his love for his homeland. He had a giant flag over his bed. He came to Gallaudet University with his girlfriend Melanie de Guzman and they planned to get married after they graduated and everyone could tell how much they were in love. Before Joseph moved to the

United States, he worked as a youth counselor, he was known for his generous nature. He would buy gifts for his friends or lend them money when they needed it. Joseph also tutored students in math, including Eric. Joseph, Eric, Ben, and Thomas had gone to know each other for the weeks that they had been there and they became close pretty quickly. The four boys hung out on that first floor every day where they could watch TV and just chill. Eric was also enjoying the extracurricular activities, which included exploring his romantic life. Eric was gay, but he had not come out to everyone in his family. However, he was proudly out on campus. This always takes courage, but it would have taken a lot of courage at the time since it was very hard to be gay in the early 2000s.

That year, Gallaudet actually had many reports of homophobic threats. There were graffitied slurs on dorm room doors, and there were hate crimes happening around campus. So much so, people were afraid to walk alone at night. Eric's R.A. Lauren said that the violence on campus didn't seem to bother Eric, but it did exist. But we know that Eric looks at the positive side of things. He's always been proud of who he is. In mid-September, Eric actually, Eric actually ran for Secretary of the Lambda Society. Now this is a student club for

LGBTQ students and he won and he was proud of his accomplishment and his involvement in the Lambda Society. If Eric was bullied or he ever experienced hate crimes towards him, no one would know about it because he never said anything. Since Eric was a secretary of the Lambda Society, he was predominantly involved in the society's day-to-day activities and he worked hard to ensure that the society members were protected and supported. So despite the rampant hatred and prejudice they faced, he wanted to make sure that they felt safe. During his time at Gallaudet, Eric loved to video call Aaron

over his computer, and their setup was very similar to FaceTime, for example. From Aaron's point of view, she could see all of Eric's storm room with pictures of the family and everything taped to the walls, and he could see everything that was going on at their house. So on September 26, Aaron was doing her weekly phone call with Eric when something caught her eye. was a guy that just walked through Eric's door and then he just took something from right behind him. So of course she asked Eric, do you know that someone just came right in without knocking

and he's like, yeah, people come in and borrow movies all the time. Remember, he has an open door policy. But to those not familiar with how dorm life kind of works at Gallaudet, Aaron thought it was strange that someone would just walk in without announcing their presence. I was actually thinking about how Eric wouldn't be able to hear anyone come in. That scares me because I jump at the littlest noise. As a hearing person, I'd be able to hear even, you know, tiny footsteps, let's say. But think about not having one extra sign that someone's behind you. Occasionally, people who are deaf will scream or they'll holler because when someone does shout like that, like in a hallway, for example, or a closed space, the wall echoes and vibrates and you can

feel those vibrations. So even knocking would send vibrations, alerting you that someone is present. On this call, Aaron offered to put Kathleen on video to talk to Eric and even though she was very busy with the work project, she took a minute to stop and say hello to her son. She remembers waving goodbye and saying that she would talk to him later. That would be the last time that she saw her son. On the evening of Thursday, September 28th, Gallaudet students were in Cogswell Hall finishing up some last minute studying, leaving theater practice, and getting ready to watch TV in their pajamas. Lauren was the first floor RA on duty. She did some studying in her room and was just waiting for the hour to hit so

she could make her rounds. That's when she was visited by one of Eric's friends, Joseph. He signed to her that he was concerned about Eric because usually he tutored him around 8 p.m. on Thursdays, but Eric hadn't shown up for his session. And this wouldn't normally freak him out, but Eric's door that was usually opened was closed and locked, which never happened. He also said he noticed a very weird smell coming from Eric's room. Oh my God, yeah, that would definitely be a cause for concern. So Lauren thought that this was a really strange. to, Eric was, as I said, very social. He never missed hanging out with his friends

and he wouldn't have missed an academic tutoring session. But she did wonder what the smell could be. Was it marijuana? Was it alcohol? Maybe incense. But Joseph was like, no, no, no. It's none of those things. So she went to find the male RA, Thomas Koch, because she didn't feel comfortable walking into Eric's dorm herself.

Once she met up with Thomas, they went to Eric's room together. They knocked on his door, hoping the vibrations would get his attention. But when he didn't open, Thomas used the master key to unlock that door, and then he flicked the light switch on and off to announce himself. Lauren was standing right next to Thomas when he opened that door, and the first thing she saw was a large amount of blood on the carpet. It was not something you would miss. And from that pool, there was a trail that led to a body that was collapsed in the middle of the room. It appeared to her like Eric had fallen and hit his head causing a lot of blood loss. We're aware and so is everyone else that Eric had cerebral palsy

and he was susceptible to losing his balance and falling. And that was the first thought that Lauren had. He'd fallen and he'd been seriously injured. Or maybe he was drunk and he vomited or he fell because of intoxication. Thomas actually couldn't even understand what he was looking at. His mind saw blood, but in his heightened state of shock, he had never seen anything like this before. He didn't connect that the blood actually belonged to Eric.

Horrified. Thomas slams the door. and tells Lauren they need to call the campus police. When EMTs arrived on the scene, they broke the news that Eric was deceased and it wasn't from natural causes. It was clear that Eric had been murdered. Washington Metro Police were called on the scene

and they quickly evacuated all students and personnel from Cogswell Hall. Then they cordoned off the entire building. This was now a homicide investigation and nothing like this had ever happened at Gallaudet up before. We do know that right outside the college, it's known for a high crime rate, but for this to happen on campus was beyond the normal shock that any murder would have brought. As investigators arrived and examined Eric's thin body on the floor, they noted that he was lying face down in a large pool of blood near his head.

He also appeared to have a broken neck, and they recovered a broken pair of eyeglasses next to his body. They also found a clump of Eric's scalp with hair still attached and blood spatter all over. a chair in his room. After examining this chair, it was determined that it may have been used by the killer to repeatedly strike Eric in the head and the lower back. That was where most of his injuries could be seen. Now, primarily it appeared to investigators that Eric had died as a result of blunt force trauma. Something else was evident.

This was overkill. Much, much more force was exerted than was necessary to end Eric's life.