Couple seeks thorough campus death probes
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Jim and Mary Nottingham’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, which approved the bill, was the latest of almost half-a-dozen trips the couple has made from their Kingsport home in support of the measure.
Called the “Robert ‘Robbie’ Nottingham Campus Crime Scene Investigation Act of 2004,” the bill is named in honor of the couple’s 22-year-old son, who was found dead a year ago on the sidewalk in front of his on-campus apartment.
Campus police determined Robbie Nottingham committed suicide by jumping from a second-story balcony. His parents believe foul play was involved and say the authorities botched their investigation into his death.
“It’s bad enough to lose a child, but to lose him and basically have him scraped up like road kill, and be told ‘We know what happened and you’re just going to have to go on and live with it,’ is wrong,” Nottingham’s father said after Wednesday’s vote.
Nottingham has said the university didn’t even call him and his wife to tell them about the death; they heard from friends of their son. Campus police had removed the body and were washing the blood away when the parents reached the scene from their home about 20 miles away.
Also, according to the family’s investigator, the crime scene was not roped off until Johnson City police arrived on the scene, and campus police sent the city officers away.
The scene, the student’s car and room were not processed for evidence until days later, and a security tape showing vehicles coming to the building was recorded over the day after his death, the investigator said.
Rep. Nathan Vaughn, sponsor of the bill in the House, said the couple’s presence as the measure progresses through the legislative process has been key to its success so far. The bill was approved unanimously last week by the full Senate.
“When you’re able to personalize legislation it brings it back to home. Then people begin to see, ‘This could have been my family,'” said Vaughn, D-Kingsport. “… They believe in what they’re doing, they believe in the issues — not just in terms of what happened to their son — but why it is important to make a difference for the young people on college campuses all across this nation.”
ETSU President Paul Stanton, in a phone interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, said he believes college campuses across Tennessee have “very good public safety offices.”
“However, in any major case with any suspicion of foul play, particularly murder, the old expression ‘Two heads are better than one’ definitely applies,” he said.
Stanton pointed out both the university’s safety office and the local medical examiner found no evidence of foul play.
“Our hearts and thoughts go out to the family, it has to be a horrible time,” he said. “… I can’t imagine anything worse. So in the future, anything more or better that can be done, we want it done.”
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On the Net:
Read Senate Bill 2797/House Bill 2753: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us