A new witness comes forward in Tucker Hipps' case |
The Tucker Hipps' case has taken an interesting turn as a
new unnamed witness has come forward in the Hipps' lawsuit in South Carolina state court.
Hipps' parents are suing Clemson University, Sigma Phi Epsilon and three of its fraternity members - Samuel Carney, Thomas Carter King and Campbell T. Starr. The 19-year-old Clemson student fell from the Highway 93 bridge and died during a run with his fraternity brothers from Sigma Phi Epsilon on September 22nd, 2014. Hipps went to Wren High School before Clemson and graduated there in 2013. According to the lawsuit, a tradition existed of requiring, pressuring or forcing pledges to jump off one of the bridges over Lake Hartwell and swim to shore. New court documents this week may have shed some light on what happened to Hipps. According to an unnamed witness in the proposed amended lawsuit, three fraternity members "forced Tucker to get onto the narrow railing along the bridge and walk some distance of the bridge on top of the railing. Tucker slipped from the railing and caught the railing under his arms .... tried to climb back onto the bridge unassisted ... lost his grip on the bridge and fell headfirst into the water below, striking his head on the rocks in the shallow water." "King shined the flashlight on his cell phone into the dark waters below looking for Tucker," but nobody in the group tried to immediately rescue him according to the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, the group waited at least three hours before they looked for him and seven hours before they called the campus police. "It does answer some questions," Hipps' mother said via CNN.com. "(It) connects some of the dots. There's still some dots missing. ... We want the whole truth." Cindy Hipps misses her only son greatly. "His dad and I miss him so terribly. He still is the first thing and the last thing we think about every day and he is just terribly missed."
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