News of the Night: 10/01/99
From The Daily Texan: Back Page, Campus Life, Monday:
Hell Week Sweeps Campus
"Rush" is over, and now the Greek community begins the serious business of partying. Last year south University avenue, the home of many of UT's fraternities and sororities, was blocked off by police due to the crowds clogging the road, and with as many strong new Greek groups as we have this year, Hell Week 1999 will be an even bigger crowd. The University does not sanction "Hell Week" festivities and posted official notice that organizations serving alcohol to minors could face the loss of their charters--like they did last year, and the year before. The "Frat Row Kegger" party scheduled Friday night is open to anyone with IDs at least 18 years of age. Rumor has it that as part of the Saturday party Delta Omega Alpha will be projecting "Animal House" and other classic fraternity flicks on the south side of the UT Tower.
Missing persons this week:
Katie Esteppe, 20, and Collin West, 19: Last seen leaving Scottish
Rite Dormitory on 26th street Thursday. Other dormitory members
said the pair was going to the Perry-Casteneda libraries at University
of Texas at 6:00. Parents and Austin Police offering reward for
any information on these two.
Friday, October 1: Second page, Austin-American Statesman:
Connell, 19, body found
The body of Jessica Connell was found in Waller Creek near Martin
Luther King blvd. Friday morning at 5:30 am.
Connell was last seen at Bass Concert Hall, where she attended an Austin Civic Chorus concert at 8:00 at night. A passer-by saw her body caught near the MLK bridge across Waller Creek Friday morning. Coroners have not yet released complete information on the condition of the body; death apparently resulted from blood loss due to several deep, parallel cuts like claw-marks, though the body was heavily battered as if with a club.
Saturday, October 2: Second Page, Austin American Statesman,
Local news broadcasts Friday night
3 Police Hospitalized in DWI arrest
Three University of Texas Police Department officers were badly injured when they attempted to pull over a suspected intoxicated driver Friday. The three officers had been waiting for DWI cases from University of Texas "Hell Week" parties signaled a white Lexus to pull off the Martin Luther King IH 35 access road when it had been weaving dangerously.
<Video and voice-over: police video tapes show the officers approaching the car. License plates, officer's and assailant's faces "blurred" out. The officers approach the driver's door. Officer appears to say something, door violently opens, pushing the cop into the road. Three people--two men wearing slacks, T-shirts and baseball caps, a girl wearing same--leave car, and proceed to pummel the police into submission. They drive off.>
The UTPD officers are listed in stable condition. One arrest has been made in the case, when Austin Police Department officers apprehended Zeta Rho Omega sorority member Sheila Hersh at her sorority house Saturday morning. ZRO spokesperson Nickie Plasek said, "This is so not what being a sorority sister is about. We're, like, shocked by this thing, and we're like organizing a big designated driver thing to keep people who've like partied too hard off the road tonight, you know?"