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Speaker 1: Warning, this episode discusses youth depression and suicide. These topics

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Speaker 1: may be distressing for some listeners. The tragedy that began

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Speaker 1: in the summer of twenty sixteen didn't just make headlines

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Speaker 1: in Kirksville, Missouri, as students at Truman State University and

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Speaker 1: the surrounding community began killing themselves. It made headlines around

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Speaker 1: the world. It began as an ordinary summer in Kirksville,

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Speaker 1: a college town in northern Missouri about three hours away

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Speaker 1: from Saint Louis, But in August, when members of the

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Speaker 1: fraternity Alpha Kapa Lambda started dying by suicide, the community

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Speaker 1: paid attention. On August seventh, Alex Mullins took his own

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Speaker 1: life by hanging himself from a wardrobe in his room

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Speaker 1: at the fraternity house. This was the first of the suicides.

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Speaker 1: He was discovered by one of his Fraternitynity brothers. When

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Speaker 1: medics arrived, they declared Alex dead. It was a terrible situation,

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Speaker 1: but police didn't suspect anything that could be considered criminal.

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Speaker 1: But just twenty days later, another Alpha Kappa Lambda brother

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Speaker 1: killed himself in the same way. He was found by

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Speaker 1: a fraternity brother who got him to the ground performed

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Speaker 1: CPR and yelled out for someone to call nine one one,

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Speaker 1: and in both instances that fraternity brother was Brandon Grosheim.

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Speaker 1: Brandon was a psychology major who had been very close

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Speaker 1: to both victims. He mistakenly believed he had a near

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Speaker 1: superhuman ability to help depressed people. And that's not all.

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Speaker 1: When he moved off campus, his brand new neighbor from

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Speaker 1: across the hall named Alex Vote, killed himself. Brandon was

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Speaker 1: one of the last people to see him alive. Alex

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Speaker 1: Vote was actually the third of the four suicides in

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Speaker 1: this cluster, but his name wasn't brought to the public's

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Speaker 1: attention until after the fourth death, the death of yet

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Speaker 1: another fraternity brother at Alpha Kapa Lambda. This was Josh Thomas.

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Speaker 1: Josh was found with a piece of paper with Brandon's

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Speaker 1: name and email addresses written on it, so that was

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Speaker 1: the order of the deaths. Number one Alex Mullins, number

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Speaker 1: two Jay Hughes, number three Alex Vote, and number four

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Speaker 1: Josh Thomas, and all four of them were close with

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Speaker 1: Brandon Grossheim. The parents of the victims, the fellow fraternity members,

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Speaker 1: and outside observers all began to wonder was it a

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Speaker 1: tragic coincidence that Brandon Grossheim knew these victims so intimately,

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Speaker 1: or was Grossheim somehow involved. This podcast series tells the

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Speaker 1: story of the most infamous suicide cluster in American history.

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Speaker 1: It's a production of iHeart Podcasts and Cool Fire Studios.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host Ben Westoff along with Ryan Krawl. This

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Speaker 1: is the Peacemaker. All of these deaths in a row

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Speaker 1: were shocking, but there was precedent. Mental health experts call

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Speaker 1: them suicide clusters.

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Speaker 2: The definition of cluster is when there is about three

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Speaker 2: or more deaths following some type of suicide. So you've

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Speaker 2: got three or more people who kill themselves within maybe

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Speaker 2: a six to eighteen month period after there's been a

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Speaker 2: suicide attempt or a suicide a completed suicide in their vicinity.

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Speaker 1: That's Rita Leyshewsky, a trainer on suicide prevention and mental

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Speaker 1: health for community advocates in Milwaukee. She notes that suicides

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Speaker 1: are on the ride. Almost fifty thousand Americans killed themselves

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two. That's a record. What was strange

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Speaker 1: to me is that suicides actually fell during COVID, as

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Speaker 1: Lashevsky explained, since everyone was cooped up there was much

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Speaker 1: less fomo during COVID, nobody belonged.

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Speaker 2: Nobody belonged because we're all isolated in our houses. We

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Speaker 2: didn't see how much we didn't belong. We didn't see

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Speaker 2: that the church ladies went out to Denny's after church

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Speaker 2: on Sunday.

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Speaker 1: But we weren't there.

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Speaker 2: We didn't see that the kids went out as Starbucks,

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Speaker 2: but they didn't invite me.

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Speaker 1: Suicides can be contagious. After Marilyn Monroe killed herself, for example,

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Speaker 1: there was something like a twelve percent rise in suicides.

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Speaker 1: The term suicide cluster was coined in the nineteen eighties

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Speaker 1: following a surge in young people taking their lives. In Bergenfield,

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Speaker 1: New Jersey, in nineteen eighty seven, a pair of sisters

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Speaker 1: and two young men entered into a suicide pact. They

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Speaker 1: got into a car and killed themselves by letting it

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Speaker 1: run in a closed garage. In the four weeks that

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Speaker 1: followed this highly publicized case, thirty five imitators killed themselves

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Speaker 1: in similar ways. This is called the Worther effect, named

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Speaker 1: for the seventeen seventy four novel The Sorrows of Young

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Speaker 1: Worther by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Gerte. It depicts

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Speaker 1: the suicide of a heartbroken young man. The book was

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Speaker 1: a runaway hit, but it led directly to a rash

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Speaker 1: of youth suicides, so many that Italy and Denmark banned it.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to imagine today that a piece of literature

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Speaker 1: printed on dead trees could have such a dramatic effect

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Speaker 1: on young people, and eighteenth century Europe seems almost impossibly

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Speaker 1: far away from the American heartland. But there are many parallels.

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Speaker 1: Before their deaths, all four of the Kirksville's suicide victims

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Speaker 1: had relationship problems that sent them reeling. One can imagine

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Speaker 1: they resembled young Worther in some ways. For example, when

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Speaker 1: Werther first meets his beloved Charlotte, he's over the moon.

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Speaker 1: Here's a short reading from the book by our producer

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Speaker 1: Ryan Crawl.

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Speaker 3: I shall see her, I say aloud in the morning,

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Speaker 3: when I wake, and with all cheerfulness look towards the

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Speaker 3: lovely sun. I shall see her, and for the whole day.

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Speaker 3: Then I have no further wish. Everything, everything is consumed

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Speaker 3: in this one prospect.

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Speaker 1: But Charlotte will soon be married to another man. Young

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Speaker 1: Worther will never have.

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Speaker 3: Her deluded by the innocent dream that I sat near

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Speaker 3: her on the grass, and held her hand and covered

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Speaker 3: it in a thousand kisses. Vainly I seek her in

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Speaker 3: my bed, tears forced up in floods from the wellspring

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Speaker 3: of my heart, and I weep inconsolably at the prospect

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Speaker 3: of myne dire future.

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Speaker 1: Besides this eighteenth century German novel, many also compare the

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Speaker 1: Kirksville suicides to a more recent, high profile case, that

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Speaker 1: of Massachusetts teenager Conrad Roy, who killed himself in twenty fourteen.

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Speaker 1: His girlfriend, Michelle Carter, pressured him to go through with it.

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Speaker 1: I thought you wanted to do this. One of her

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Speaker 1: texts read, the time is right and you're ready. You

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Speaker 1: just need to do it. You can't keep living this way.

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Speaker 1: People who commit suicide don't think this much. They just

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Speaker 1: do it. Michelle Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in

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Speaker 1: the death. Some say Brandon Grosheim should be similarly charged,

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Speaker 1: that he too was responsible when it came to the

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Speaker 1: deaths of these Kirksville students, but the cases are different.

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Speaker 1: For one thing, Michelle Carter repeatedly urged her boyfriend to

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Speaker 1: kill himself. The prosecution had the texts showing this with

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Speaker 1: Brandon Grossheim. However, there's no direct evidence that we're aware

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Speaker 1: of that he told anyone to end their lives, nor

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Speaker 1: could Grossheim be credibly compared to Jack Kovorkian, the Michigan

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Speaker 1: euthanasia proponent nicknamed Doctor Death. He assisted over one hundred

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Speaker 1: suicides and in nineteen ninety nine was convicted of second

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Speaker 1: degree homicide. Kavorkian helped people with terminal illnesses end their lives. Grossheim,

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Speaker 1: on the other hand, dealt with young people who were depressed.

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Speaker 1: Though Brandon was a psychology major, he certainly didn't have

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Speaker 1: expertise in this area. Here's suicide prevention trainer Rita Leyshewsky's

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Speaker 1: thoughts on Brandon.

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Speaker 2: I believe that he just believed he was grander and

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Speaker 2: more helpful than any type of degree would give him.

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Speaker 1: After the four suicides, no one could ignore Brandon's ties

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Speaker 1: to these tragedies any longer. The police began investigating him

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Speaker 1: more seriously, and they got Brandon to speak with a

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Speaker 1: professional counselor. It was his fourth consecutive friend who had

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Speaker 1: killed himself, he told the counselor. According to a police report.

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Speaker 1: He also said that he had made sure to let

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Speaker 1: all of his friends know that he was there for

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Speaker 1: them and gave them advice and step by step directions

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Speaker 1: on how to deal with things like depression. But he

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Speaker 1: knew all along they would quote do their own free will.

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Speaker 1: This statement gets to the heart of the issue. What

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Speaker 1: does that mean? Do their own free will? Was he

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Speaker 1: telling them that if they killed themselves he would understand

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Speaker 1: it's possible? He was even more explicit. We talked to

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Speaker 1: a former friend of Grosheim's named Tristan Wiser. She says

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Speaker 1: Brandon sent text messages to the second suicide victim, Jake

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Speaker 1: Hughes about how to end it.

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Speaker 4: I remember he had texted things about how to do

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Speaker 4: it and how to end it if he really wanted

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Speaker 4: to put himself out of it. I remember that being

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Speaker 4: said how to tie it. I believe it was how

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Speaker 4: to tie it, how to tie it a knot that

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Speaker 4: would need to be done.

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Speaker 1: Brandon Grosheim denies ever having encouraged anyone to kill themselves

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Speaker 1: or aiding them and doing so. Further, Tristan's claim that

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Speaker 1: Brandon sent Jake text messages about how to kill himself

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Speaker 1: or how to tie a news has not been verified.

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Speaker 1: Tristan says she didn't actually see these messages herself, but

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Speaker 1: heard about them from an acquaintance who had access to

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Speaker 1: Jake's phone. She declines to name the acquaintance. One thing

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Speaker 1: seems clear, at the very least, Brandon did not try

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Speaker 1: very hard to dissuade these impressionable young men from taking

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Speaker 1: their lives. The question then becomes when does supporting a

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Speaker 1: friend in their time of need turn into giving them

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Speaker 1: permission to end it all. To understand how all of

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Speaker 1: this could have happened, it helps to understand the city

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Speaker 1: of Kirksville where it all went down. Located near Missouri's

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Speaker 1: northern border with Iowa, It's surrounded by farmland. There's natural beauty,

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Speaker 1: but poverty is pervasive. Kirksville has a cute town square

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Speaker 1: surrounding the county courthouse, including a pizzeria called Polly Eyes,

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Speaker 1: where Brandon Grosheim worked. When I visited the town with

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Speaker 1: our producer Ryan Krall, we watched the high school homecoming

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Speaker 1: parade on the main drag. We asked people what they

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Speaker 1: liked about living there. It's got a small town atmosphere.

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Speaker 5: My kids could be in anything they wanted to be in.

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Speaker 6: People are nice, just a great little place to grow up.

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Speaker 1: For a family to grow up in. Before the suicides,

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Speaker 1: Truman State was Kirksville's biggest employer, and most locals acknowledge

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Speaker 1: its importance. So there's a bit of the town versus

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Speaker 1: gown dynamic that is a culture clash between the fancy

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Speaker 1: schmancy college kids and the blue collar locals who are

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Speaker 1: apparently known as kirkatoids.

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Speaker 3: That's what Urman kids call them.

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Speaker 5: Or kirkatoids. That's is that like a pejoradi.

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Speaker 7: That's what we called them when I went to termin

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Speaker 7: in nineties, as Kirkatoys.

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Speaker 5: I don't get it.

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Speaker 1: I don't need That's what we call them.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 7: In the dictionary you have Shitkricker, which is a real

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Speaker 7: term and it actually is born and raised out of Kirksville.

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Speaker 5: Is actually in the dictionary a ship like the creek

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Speaker 5: the creek.

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Speaker 7: But it's it is an addictionary, Okay, Chick Cricker is

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Speaker 7: born and raised here, all right.

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Speaker 1: Kirksville's other claim to fame is as the birthplace of osteopathy,

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Speaker 1: a type of medicine that focuses on healing ailments by

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Speaker 1: massaging and manipulating muscles and joints. In fact, Brandon's old

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Speaker 1: fraternity house, Alpha Kapa Lambda, is located on South Osteopathy Avenue.

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Speaker 1: But while Truman State is picturesque, I would not describe

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Speaker 1: Kirksville as a cute college town along the lines of Madison,

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Speaker 1: Wisconsin or Lawrence, Kansas. And the Truman State campus. I

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Speaker 1: asked some students where I should go eat. I'm vegan.

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Speaker 1: Is there anything like anywhere I can eat?

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Speaker 5: Great question?

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Speaker 1: I don't know.

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Speaker 5: There's no like healthy restaurants here.

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Speaker 3: We've realized, like if you want like.

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Speaker 5: Something healthy, like, it's just not. Heuge's reach on.

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Speaker 1: My parents come to visit, they're like they're shot.

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Speaker 8: Like, Oh, I don't know, it's all kind of gross.

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Speaker 1: I'm getting that impression already. Alex Mullins, the first suicide victim,

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Speaker 1: grew up in North Kansas City. His mother described him

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Speaker 1: as a city boy. Kirksville just wasn't a great fit.

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Speaker 1: During Alex's second year at Truman State, his grades started

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Speaker 1: slipping and he was put on academic probation at the

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Speaker 1: Alpha Kappa Lambda House. Meanwhile, he grew tired of all

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Speaker 1: the debauchery. Sure he loved to party as much as

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Speaker 1: the next guy, but wasn't the fraternity supposed to serve

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Speaker 1: a higher purpose whatever happened to community service. A close

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Speaker 1: friend of Alex Mullins from high school was named Tommy Lona.

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Speaker 1: He also attended Truman but didn't join AKL. He said

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Speaker 1: that not long before Alex killed himself, the fraternity members bullied.

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Speaker 6: Him on this specific day over you know, a game

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Speaker 6: of dice or basically like beer pong type of frat game.

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Speaker 6: They trucked the dice in the air, but that they

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Speaker 6: just stuck with me because it was a day Alex

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Speaker 6: obviously was off. He didn't seem right. He was very

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Speaker 6: irritable and like his fraturning to members were just like

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Speaker 6: disparaging and calling him a P word, a B word,

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Speaker 6: and just this is the typical kind of like man

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Speaker 6: on man bullying. That was the same day I watched

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Speaker 6: him like just start dropping his wallet and keys, and

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Speaker 6: he walked into the woods and like grabbed a piece

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Speaker 6: of sharp metal and was trying to like slice his

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Speaker 6: arm and his neck. I just was begging him not

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Speaker 6: to do this, like pleading with him, like, well, you

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Speaker 6: have friends that love you, dude, Like please move out

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Speaker 6: of here. If this is this is the type of

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Speaker 6: way that they're making you feel overall, I mean, you

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Speaker 6: just got to get away from it.

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Speaker 1: But Alex didn't dislike everyone at the fraternity. One person

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Speaker 1: he got along with well was Brandon Grossheim. They got

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Speaker 1: to know each other because Alex was the fraternity house manager,

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Speaker 1: the guy responsible for general maintenance and mopping up the

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Speaker 1: spilled beer. Alex's tenure as house manager was winding down,

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Speaker 1: so Brandon was taking over. Alex trained him in and

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Speaker 1: they hit it off. For one thing, Brandon agreed with

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Speaker 1: him about the fraternity's commitment to public service. In their

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Speaker 1: free time, he and Brandon would smoke weed together and

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Speaker 1: they'd also play first person shooter games. After his sophomore year,

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Speaker 1: Alex lived part of the summer in the Alpha Kappa

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Speaker 1: Lambda house. I asked his fraternity brother Connor Templeton about that.

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Speaker 9: Time most people would go home. It maybe be five

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Speaker 9: or six of us still live in the fraternity house. Like,

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Speaker 9: for instance, me and Alex Mullens. We both worked all

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Speaker 9: the summer. As we'd hang out outside play games. I

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Speaker 9: had to blow up POOLU put in our parking line.

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Speaker 9: Wou'd hang out in the end so.

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Speaker 1: As the new school year drew closer, however, Alex spiraled

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Speaker 1: his relationship with a girl he'd been seeing withered. In fact,

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Speaker 1: the night before his death, she broke up with him. Gobsmacked,

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Speaker 1: he reportedly sent a message to some of his fraternity brothers.

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Speaker 1: If anyone has drugs in Kirksville that is here, please

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Speaker 1: hit me up. I don't care the price, not having

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Speaker 1: a good night, just need to forget. Early the next afternoon,

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Speaker 1: Kirksville police were urgently dispatched to the Alpha Kappa lambdahouse.

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Speaker 1: According to a police report, a fraternity member had been

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Speaker 1: trying to reach Alex, but he wasn't answering his phone

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Speaker 1: and his door was locked. To try to check on him,

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Speaker 1: Brandon Grosheim went outside and looked in Alex's window. Peering

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Speaker 1: through a small opening in the blinds, he saw Alex

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Speaker 1: hanging from his wardrobe. When the police arrived, Brandon entered

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Speaker 1: Alex's room through the window. He tried to pick Alex up,

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Speaker 1: apparently to see if he could still be saved, but

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Speaker 1: the body was stiff. He then unlocked Alex's door to

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Speaker 1: let the officers in. News of the death quickly spread.

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Speaker 1: Alex Mullen's friends and family were devastated. Here's his friend

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Speaker 1: Tommy Lona.

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Speaker 10: It was honestly the most terrible bay ever. Oh I

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Speaker 10: felt completely weak and been useless.

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Speaker 1: But their sadness was punctuated by questions things didn't seem

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Speaker 1: to add up. Take Brandon Grossheim's account, for example, He

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Speaker 1: apparently claimed he waited for police to arrive before climbing

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Speaker 1: through the window to see if he could save Alex Mullens.

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Speaker 1: But if he thought there was a chance Alex might

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Speaker 1: still be alive, why would he wait. Alex's mother, meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: says she didn't receive word of her son's death until

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Speaker 1: long after the fact.

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Speaker 2: It's our belief that Alex died around one thirty am,

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Speaker 2: so almost twelve hours later.

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Speaker 8: I don't know if anybody found him until the morning.

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Speaker 8: I don't know. That's the thing. There's lots of things

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Speaker 8: that don't make sense.

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Speaker 1: When she arrived to the fraternity house, his room seemed

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Speaker 1: suspiciously tidy. Had someone removed her son's drug paraphernalia? Also,

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Speaker 1: he seemed to be missing cash. Had Brandon or others

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Speaker 1: actually gone into Alex's room before the police arrived and

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Speaker 1: then lied about it? In the meantime, the grieving process

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Speaker 1: for Alex Mullen's death began. One person who took his

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Speaker 1: death extremely hard was his close friend from the fraternity,

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Speaker 1: Jake Hughes. Jake was a nineteen year old psychology major

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Speaker 1: described by his friends as artsy and musical. He got

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Speaker 1: a tattoo on his chest in memory of Alex Mullins. Sadly,

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Speaker 1: this was not the first time Jake had seen someone

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Speaker 1: die from suicide. In fact, he had experienced a shocking

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Speaker 1: amount of turmoil for someone so young. Here's a police

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Speaker 1: interview with Alpha Kappa Lambda member Logan Hunt talking about

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Speaker 1: Jake Hughes, who was the second suicide victim.

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Speaker 11: He said stories on stories about like previous relationships gone wrong,

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Speaker 11: and like over Skype, like his ex girlfriend had died

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Speaker 11: of a heroin overdose, like in front of his eyes,

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Speaker 11: like over Skype.

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Speaker 1: According to police reports, Jake had substance abuse issues, depression,

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Speaker 1: and had even previously attempted suicide. Still, no one was

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Speaker 1: prepared when, just twenty days after Alex Mullen's death, Jake

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Speaker 1: took his own life. It happened during a raging party

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Speaker 1: at the AKL House. Jake had a fight with his

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Speaker 1: girlfriend that night and was saying some very dark things.

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Speaker 1: Brandon Grossheim tried to make him feel better and offered

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Speaker 1: to give Jake's girlfriend a ride home, and so Jake

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Speaker 1: gave him the keys to his car. When Brandon returned,

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Speaker 1: he went to check on Jake, but his door was locked,

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Speaker 1: as Brandon told police.

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Speaker 12: And then I preceeded.

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Speaker 8: I remembered I had his keys because he.

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Speaker 12: Gave me his his car keys. Because you're yeah, such,

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Speaker 12: I ran.

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Speaker 5: Back to my room.

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Speaker 8: I grabbed his car keys and unlocked his door.

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Speaker 12: Okay, that's why I found him hanging there. Okay.

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Speaker 8: I lifted him up, I told I yelled out and

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Speaker 8: told somebody called nine to one one okay now, and

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Speaker 8: then I kept going for help.

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Speaker 1: It was uncanny. Jake hung himself the exact same way

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Speaker 1: Alex did from a wardrobe with a belt, and Brandon

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Speaker 1: Grossheim had discovered them both. Seeing that Jake had blood

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Speaker 1: on his face and his chest, Brandon sprung into action.

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Speaker 1: He attempted CPR.

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Speaker 8: I laid him down, and I tilted his head back

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Speaker 8: and presented him mouth and mouth and cpry until you

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Speaker 8: guys are right, okay.

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Speaker 1: A close friend of the deceased and fellow fraternity brother

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Speaker 1: arrived at the scene. Here's Logan Hunt talking to officers

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Speaker 1: that night.

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Speaker 11: Brandon was seen up against the wardrobe almost like caressing

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Speaker 11: Jake like down from the wardrobe, and all he could

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Speaker 11: really process at this moment was that like Jake was

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Speaker 11: like pale.

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Speaker 12: He was very pale, and.

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Speaker 11: He had like lacerations and marks like around his neck.

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Speaker 11: At this point, we had him on his back and

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Speaker 11: we were performing CPR on him, and Brandon.

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Speaker 12: Has, like Brendan's very prepared in these situations.

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Speaker 11: He like takes initiative to like perform proper CPR.

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Speaker 1: Alpha Kappa Lamb DE member Connor Templeton and watched as

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Speaker 1: it happened.

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Speaker 9: He was still breathing, you know, the party and a

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Speaker 9: lot of most people didn't know what's going on. Like

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Speaker 9: I said, there's a party downstairs. He was still breathing,

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Speaker 9: and if I remember correctly, I feel like he was

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Speaker 9: at least moving his eyes, just still breathing up until

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Speaker 9: the UH paramedics and whatnot got there and either died

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Speaker 9: right there or on the way to the hospital.

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Speaker 1: I believe police investigators who arrived wore body cameras. It's

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Speaker 1: chilling now. Listening to them interview Brandon Grossheim on the scene.

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Speaker 1: That's because Brandon is incredibly call He's not breaking down

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Speaker 1: like others around him.

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Speaker 12: When was the last time you talked to him? Till

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Speaker 12: you're thirty? And then you keyed into the door to Essex? Okay, gotcha?

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Speaker 1: The time he keyed into the door two six. He says,

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Speaker 1: he's incredibly precise, answering the investigators questions before they can

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Speaker 1: finish asking them. Brandon often sounds like he should be

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Speaker 1: leading the investigation himself. He shoots down the police's dumb

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Speaker 1: idea that this might have been auto erotic asphyxiation. For example, what.

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Speaker 5: I'm asking is the belt around the neck? Is this

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Speaker 5: the type of asphyxiation, like anything that you know of,

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Speaker 5: like a type of like asphixiation, like I'll pass out

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Speaker 5: or anything like that. I know what you're talking about. I

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Speaker 5: don't let that know, do you know if anyone who does?

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Speaker 5: That's what I'm asking.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and then he gets annoyed when they can't understand

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Speaker 1: his explanation of how Jake tied the news How was

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Speaker 1: the belt tied?

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Speaker 12: That's what he said. It was a slip knot.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, so it wasn't.

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Speaker 8: No, it was here, I don't have my belts on

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Speaker 8: the otherwise I should here. But it's it's literally like

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Speaker 8: these metal bars. There's two metal bars, two d bars. Yeah. Yeah, No,

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Speaker 8: he slipped the belt fully through there and then so

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Speaker 8: you had the belt sliding up and down and that's

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Speaker 8: what he put his neck through. And he had the

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Speaker 8: other end tied to the wardrobe.

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Speaker 5: Okay, so it wasn't actually latched anyone like it would

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Speaker 5: have just like slipped right off with him. Yes, what

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Speaker 5: I got You're okay, just describe it the best way

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Speaker 5: you came.

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Speaker 12: Like, that's what I'm trying to do.

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Speaker 8: I mean, he took the end that doesn't have the

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Speaker 8: two debars.

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Speaker 5: You gonna call him? Uh, and he tied that.

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Speaker 1: All right. So let's slow things down again and do

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Speaker 1: a quick recap with our producer Ryan Krawl.

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Speaker 3: Hey, Ben, Yeah, there is a lot going on here,

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Speaker 3: for sure.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about the police and how much they were

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Speaker 1: really investigating Brandon Grossheim at this point. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So Grossheim was, you know, definitely on the police's radar,

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Speaker 3: but I don't think they were really investigated him that closely.

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Speaker 3: They were very slow to sort of put all the

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Speaker 3: pieces together, I think, you know, overall, uh, they mostly

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Speaker 3: just felt sorry for Brandon. You know, he lost his friends,

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Speaker 3: his close friends, his frat brothers, and also and in

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Speaker 3: he's sort of at the scene of a lot of

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Speaker 3: these deaths, so he was someone that the police really

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Speaker 3: needed to talk to and get information fro him.

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Speaker 1: But it sounds like, even if the police weren't hassling him,

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Speaker 1: that the fraternity brothers, a lot of them anyway, were

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Speaker 1: suspicious of him.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right. Do you remember how in

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Speaker 3: the case of the death of Alex Mullins, some of

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Speaker 3: the fraternity brothers accused Brandon of stealing drug paraphernalia after

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Speaker 3: he died. Yeah, yeah, so those same allegations are similar

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Speaker 3: allegations were levied at Brandon in the wake of the

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Speaker 3: death of Jake Hughes, except this time they were even

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Speaker 3: more serious because some of his fraternity brothers say that

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Speaker 3: Jake Hughes actually sold drugs.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow.

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Speaker 7: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And then after his death, then some frat brothers thought

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Speaker 3: that Brandon may have raided Jake safe.

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Speaker 1: Okay, right, so and then what about the tattoos that

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Speaker 1: Brandon was getting.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, some people found that strange as well that

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Speaker 3: Brandon would get these tattoos as an homage to his

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Speaker 3: deceased fraternity brothers.

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Speaker 1: Right okay. In fact, we talked to their fellow Alpha

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00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:06,919
Speaker 1: Kappa l Ambda brother, Connor Templeton, about Brandon allegedly rating

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00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,760
Speaker 1: Jake safe and about the tattoos he got.

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Speaker 9: Brandon got a tattoo of the death Star on his

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00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,120
Speaker 9: chest and he got the number seven in the middle

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00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:16,720
Speaker 9: of the death Star.

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Speaker 1: The death Star was as a memorial to Jake, who

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00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:23,920
Speaker 1: was a Star Wars fan. The number seven held special

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00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 1: significance for Alex Mullins.

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Speaker 9: I do remember that tattoo from Brandon very vividly. So, yeah,

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00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:32,040
Speaker 9: just kind of it almost seemed like a trophy to

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00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:35,080
Speaker 9: me in a way. What do you mean exactly I

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00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 9: would I mean, if I'm going down the rabbit hole,

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00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:39,720
Speaker 9: and if say he did have a hand in any

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00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:41,399
Speaker 9: of this, and that was, you know, the first one's

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00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:44,080
Speaker 9: Mullins says, somehow, whether he did it or coax him

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00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:47,199
Speaker 9: into it, or has something to do with Jake. I mean,

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00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:49,719
Speaker 9: it's almost like he was proud of it, you know,

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00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 9: And just a lot of the things after some of

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00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 9: the deaths, it seemed seemed to be used as trophies.

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00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 1: Here referring in part to Jake's clothes which Brandon began

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00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:08,480
Speaker 1: wearing after Jake's death. They included a popsicle print shirt,

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00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,879
Speaker 1: which was one of Jake's favorites, a pair of shoes,

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00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 1: and some of Jake's silver and gold chains. Let's give

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00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:19,480
Speaker 1: Brandon the benefit of the doubt. He maybe believed that

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00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:22,439
Speaker 1: this was a way to remember his deceased friend to

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00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:26,120
Speaker 1: stay close to him, and it's worth noting that when

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00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:29,760
Speaker 1: Jake's parents arrived at the fraternity after he died, they

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00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:33,920
Speaker 1: took away his belongings, his cat, his TV, his computer,

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00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: but they purposefully left all of his clothes to the fraternity.

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Speaker 1: Whatever the case. Following the suicides of his fraternity brothers

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00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:48,880
Speaker 1: Alex Mullins and Jay Hughes, Brandon Grosheim fell into a

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00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:53,120
Speaker 1: deep depression. He was kicked out of the fraternity, left

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00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:57,120
Speaker 1: Truman State, and moved off campus with a bunch of cats.

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00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:03,080
Speaker 1: His drinking intensified, and he also began posting videos on

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Speaker 1: Facebook of him reading classic Grim's fairy tales ehill.

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Speaker 5: O, Ladies and jentlemen.

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Speaker 13: My name is verrangrosshun I think I'm gonna try and

473
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:14,680
Speaker 13: make a serious out of this, but I'm going to

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00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 13: just read some of my favorite fairy tales, specifically Grimm's

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00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 13: fairy tales. On this She began to cry and cried

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00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 13: louder and louder and could not be comfortable. What ails

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00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:33,840
Speaker 13: the hum's daughter with that weakness said, even a stone

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00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 13: would show pity.

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00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:37,320
Speaker 1: So one of the.

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00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 13: Story is I guess girlm Basically, the Princess of the

481
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 13: Frog is that if you throw a frog against them

482
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 13: all violently, whenever it's talking to you, it'll transform, and

483
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:53,840
Speaker 13: that's how you get your golden prints.

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00:29:55,560 --> 00:30:01,080
Speaker 1: Following Jake's death, Brandon also began dating Casey, Jake's girlfriend

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00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 1: at the time of his suicide. According to a police

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00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:09,040
Speaker 1: report quote, they started seeing each other right after Jake's death.

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00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:14,360
Speaker 1: That's not the only suicide victim's girlfriend Brandon appears to

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00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 1: have been involved with. In fact, Brandon was involved with

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00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:21,680
Speaker 1: a lot of women during this time, even when in

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00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 1: the midst of all this death and at least one

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00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:30,680
Speaker 1: of these women accuse him of psychological manipulation, almost like

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00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:35,280
Speaker 1: he was grooming her for suicide herself. That's next time

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Speaker 1: on the Peacemaker, the Peacemaker is a production of Cool

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00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:52,360
Speaker 1: Fire Studios and iHeart Podcasts. It's hosted by me Ben

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00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:56,920
Speaker 1: Westoff and Ryan craul Our. Executive producers are Jeff Keene,

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00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 1: David Johnson, and Steve Lubert. Music and AWE udio engineering

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00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 1: by Brent Johnson. Executive producers for iHeart Podcasts are Katrina

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00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:10,080
Speaker 1: Norvelle and Nikki Etor. If you are someone you know

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00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:14,480
Speaker 1: is having suicidal thoughts, there are resources available to you.

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00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 1: Please call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline nine eight eight