• Watchdog: Hazing Deaths
  • Blog
  • Storytelling
  • Bio
  • High School Sexual Hazing Incidents
  • Campus Speaker: Hazing & Binge Drinking
  • Military & Secret Society Deaths
  • World Hazing Deaths & Incidents
  • “Hazing,” “Sons of the Dawn,” “Legend of Jesse Owens”

Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site

Follow me on Social Media

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Sigma Pi death said to not be hazing-related: WMBD Media

March 6, 2012 By Hank Nuwer Leave a Comment

Here is an excerpt


BLOOMINGTON – A candlelight vigil is planned for 18-year-old Brandon Landau of Bronx, New York.

He was an Illinois Wesleyan University freshmen who died over the weekend after a fraternity party in northern Illinois.

University spokesman Matt Kurz told WMBD 31 Wednesday morning students are holding the vigil at 10 p.m. Wednesday on campus near Buck Memorial Library.

Meanwhile, Winnebago County Coroner Elizabeth “Sue” Fiduccia updated WMBD 31 Wednesday with new information about Landau’s death.

She said possible causes of death have been narrowed down to drowning, alcohol intoxication, hypothermia or an unknown underlying condition like a genetic heart problem.

Fiduccia said her office is not considering the possibility of a drug overdose.  However, she said the toxicology results she’s waiting for will show if Landau had any prescription drugs or illegal drugs in his system.

Results will also show his blood alcohol level at the time of his death.

Landau was found Sunday in a creek at White Pines State Park in Ogle County.  He was flown to a Rockford hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:40 p.m.

His body was found after a fraternity party thrown by the Illinois Wesleyan chapter of Sigma Pi.

Friends told authorities they last saw Landau around 2 a.m. Sunday.

His body was found in knee-deep water, Fiduccia said.  She said he was face down, with his upper body on a log and his torso in water.

She said his body was not in two pieces and sustained no trauma.  She said there were cuts and abrasions consistent with his head falling forward and hitting a log.

Fiduccia said based on information she’s received from detectives, the death is not being investigated as a hazing incident.

She said Landau had already been vetted and accepted into the fraternity.  She said the group came to northern Illinois for a spring dance and had rented cabins at the state park.

Police arrested four underage drinkers, including the fraternity’s 20-year-old president Casey Wiersma, in connection to the fraternity party.

Filed Under: Hazing News

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Inquiries

Hank Nuwer

Correspondence: Hank Nuwer at Hnuwer@hanknuwer.com   Phone number upon request.  Available presentations USA, … Email to book a date.

Books

Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey: Hank's novel is for teens 11-18 but also meant to be enjoyed by … Read More

Watchdog: Hazing Deaths

… Read More

A Miami of Ohio cautionary tale

This pledge made it through hazing–barely. Now he is speaking out.

Delta Chi (VCU) and Pi Kappa Alpha (BGSU) By Hank Nuwer

  The year 2020 came and went with no direct hazing deaths in U.S. and North American schools for the first time since the year 1958. To be sure, there was an indirect death when the girlfriend of an intoxicated pledge killed herself at Louisiana University in 2020 after fraternity pledge brothers broke into her […]

A Pi Kappa Alpha tragedy at Bowling Green State University: Toledo Blade

3/6/2021.   corrected article from Toledo Blade BOWLING GREEN — Prospective member Stone Foltz of the Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity at Bowling Green State University is on life suppport following an alleged incident of alcohol-related hazing at an off-campus event, according to a statement from the family’s lawyer.   The fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha’s Delta […]

Family alleges Adam Oakes dies from hazing at VCU: ABC

Here is the LInk Virginia Commonwealth University said it shut down Delta Chi fraternity and the police are investigating after a freshman student was found dead this weekend. Adam Oakes, 19, was found dead at an off-campus residence early Saturday morning by authorities, the university and the Richmond Police Department said in statements. The medical examiner’s […]

Archives


Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site is proudly powered by WordPress