My esteemed Keloland colleague and friend, Todd Epp, posts on the death of Morgan Lewis. Lewis, a faculty member at NSU was found dead outside Seymour Hall on November 1st, 2004. After a lengthy investigation, the Aberdeen police department concluded that his death was a suicide. Now Todd posts a letter he received, from "APD Officer 264".
Let me tell you from actually working on the case that it leaves very little doubt that this was in fact a murder. even the Coroner ruled it a homicide. A suspect had a motive and knew facts of the case that were never relased to the public. I read the report. I worked on the case. I dealt with the suspect. I like many other officers still feel that it was murder, not suicide. But 2 murders on NSU would look bad in the press and enrollment would drop. A suicide and an accicental death look a lot better to prospective college students than 2 murders with no arrests.
Todd acknowledges that he has no idea whether this letter is from "a real cop in Aberdeen or someone yanking our chains," but he does not hesitate to add: "it does seem have a ring of truth to it." I would add that if the post comes from someone who isn't indeed a cop, it has neither a ring nor any other hint of truth to it. Unless some Aberdeen policeman with a real name comes forward to endorse the note (along with the misspellings) it is mere rumor mongering and innuendo. If he does, then we will have something to talk about.
In the almost four years since Morgan died, not a shred of evidence has come to light to indicate the involvement of any party in his death other than himself. If Todd knows of such evidence, he might have stated it. Nor has anyone produced evidence to show that it was not suicide. In light of these two facts, allegations of cover up are mere innuendo. I am sure that lawyer Epp knows what that means.
After the investigation was concluded and the police announced their findings, my NSU colleague Jim Seeber and I interviewed the Aberdeen Chief of Police Don Lanpher. The results of that interview were published in the American News. Todd gave us a great deal of grief for our efforts, calling us the "NSU Hardy Boys." Now that he has chosen to play detective himself, on the basis of no stated evidence, I am not so embarrassed to reproduce our article. It indicates the reasons that the Aberdeen police reached the conclusions that they did. It was published in February 2004.
The death of Morgan Lewis on November 1, 2004, was a traumatic event for Northern State University’s faculty, staff, and student body. Last Thursday, Aberdeen Chief of Police Don Lanpher held a press conference in the Johnson Fine Arts Center where he announced the result of the fifteen month investigation. The police concluded that Morgan Lewis died of a self-inflicted wound. On February 10 Chief Lanpher returned to campus and was interviewed by Kenneth Blanchard and James Seeber.
This article represents our understanding of the evidence upon which the investigators based their conclusion. We apologize for its bluntness and graphic nature, but we believe that concerns for justice, public safety, and the reputation of the police force are serious enough that these details must be made public. Any errors are our responsibility and not that of Chief Lanpher.
The physical evidence was decisive. The gun that killed Morgan Lewis was made in the early twentieth century and proved impossible to trace. It was found in the dumpster outside Seymour Hall, where Lewis had his office. The police were not able to lift any prints off the weapon.
However, powder residue indicated that Lewis had handled the weapon with both hands. Blowback, a term for blood, hair, and other materials that were recovered from the gun, and blood spatter on his hand, both indicated that Lewis himself fired the shot that resulted in his fatal wound. The angle of entry is consistent with someone holding the gun in his left hand and placing it against his neck, under the left side of his jaw.
We asked Chief Lanpher a question that many of our colleagues have asked: how did the gun get into the dumpster? The distance between the dumpster and the spot that Lewis’s body was found was approximately forty feet. Much gossip on and off campus was based on the erroneous information that the distance was forty yards. When the gun was fired the shell casing was ejected. Its location on the ground allowed the police to determine that the gun was fired next to the dumpster.
The low caliber shell passed through Lewis’s neck, severing his carotid artery but missing his spine. Had the bullet hit his spine, he would have dropped where he stood. Instead he was able to toss the gun into the dumpster and then walk a short distance, during which time he bled to death. A clear blood trail began at the dumpster. It indicates that he fell once on the grass, and again where his body was found.
Sometime before 5:30 am on the morning he died, Morgan Lewis went outside of Seymour Hall wearing a tee shirt and no jacket. He had left his personal items, including his car keys and the key to the building, inside his office in his backpack. He could not have re-entered the building nor could he had driven home. His wallet was found by his body, empty, but there was cash in his backpack in his office. Lewis had two life insurance policies. The beneficiary was a person with whom he had had a long term relationship. Chief Lanpher declined to speculate on any of this, but we will. It seems likely that when he left the building, Lewis had no intention either of going back inside or going home. He may have had thoughts of making his suicide look like murder.
Chief Lanpher said there was other evidence that he could not talk about because it would invade the privacy of Lewis and his family. He did tell us that the investigators called in help from a number of different law-enforcement agencies, including State’s Attorney Mark McNeary. In addition, the Aberdeen investigators submitted their evidence to three outside consultants: a physician specializing in forensics, a firearms expert, and a “cold case” specialist in Florida. All three, working independently of one another, reached the same conclusion as the Aberdeen police.
Police Chief Lanpher was candid and thorough in answering our questions. We found his account to be very persuasive.
Recent Comments