About six months ago, the body of Tucker Hipps, Sig Ep pledge at Clemson University was found floating in Lake Hartwell. At the time, the fraternity claimed that the pledges went on a voluntary run when Tucker fell behind. After his disappearance, he fell over a bridge into the lake. Except that recent reports from his parents’ investigation are showing that is not quite the case, and apparently, his death was spiraled by McDonald’s breakfast.
As pledge class president, Tucker was required to return to his fraternity house with 30 McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches, 30 hash browns, and two gallons of chocolate milk after their pledge run. Immature, but it seems a pretty normal task for college students. “Bring me a biscuit” isn’t that crazy a demand. When Tucker said he couldn’t afford all that fast food, he was told to ask his pledge brothers for help paying for the expensive munchies. Identified defendant Thomas King (among other defendants, Campbell Starr and Samuel Carney — son of Delaware State Representative John Carney) got a call from a “pissed off” Sig Ep back at the house which led to an altercation between he and Tucker. When you’re exhausted in the middle of the night during a run, McDonald’s breakfast could seem like it was worth fighting over. But it was so. not. worth it.
Holy. Shit.
The panic, trauma, and sheer terror this boy must have felt when he watched his friend — his brother — fall over a bridge and DIE during an argument. Not to mention, he must have been plagued with guilt. We were fighting over McDonald’s breakfast. Is this for fucking real? And of course, the fear that comes with witnessing a death like this. Can I get in trouble for this? We were arguing. Will it be said that I KILLED my friend?
It’s like some awful scene out of a movie. And then things only get worse.
Well, fuck. This complicates things. It looks bad. Really bad. But what makes it look worse is all the lying — the deceit. Why would you pretend you had no idea what happened when you very clearly do? Why would you ever think you could “beat the system”? And in the case of a friend’s death, why would you want to? When you lie, it makes it look like you have something to hide. And the boys kept lying.
They lied to Tucker’s girlfriend.
And Defendant King and Defendant Starr tried to cover his tracks and delete his phone history.
I obviously wasn’t there that night, but I want to believe that this was an accident — a terrifying accident to which a bunch of kids did not know how to react, so they handled in the worst way possible. But the fact that at no point did they come forward and try to correct their error is terrifying.
The report never accuses anyone of manslaughter, but it’s also not ruled out as a possibility. I don’t know what to believe.
Read the full report, here and decide for yourself..
[via Gawker]
Image via Clemson
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Veronica Ruckh
Veronica (@VeronicaRuckh) is the Director of Total Sorority Move for Grandex, Inc. After having spent her undergraduate years drinking $4 double LITs on a patio and drunk texting away potential suitors, she managed to graduate with an impressive GPA and an unimpressive engagement ring -- so unimpressive, in fact, some might say it's not there at all. Veronica has since been fulfilling her duties as "America's big," a title she gave to herself with the help of her giant ego. She has recently switched from vodka to wine on weekdays. Email her at [email protected]
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