CLEMSON, S.C. – The parents of Tucker Hipps, the 19-year-old Clemson student who died while running with his fraternity brothers last fall, sat down with 7 On Your Side’s Amy Wood Thursday. The lawsuit they filed, the hazing allegations and how their son’s phone held vital clues that helped form the claims in their lawsuit are all topics covered in the discussion.
Amy’s Interview With Cindy and Gary Hipps
Tucker’s father, Gary Hipps, says Tucker’s phone held many clues so they knew what text messages were on there and his interactions with other people.
“It’s important to remember that our goal is to make sure the dots will get connected. If we get the right dots out there we can connect them,” said Hipps.
They said the additional details that solidifies their version of events surrounding the bridge and their son’s deadly fall will come out as the case moves forward.
One thing that is clear, they are not getting the details from the Oconee County sheriff’s office.
When asked if they trusted the criminal investigation headed by the sheriff’s office, they responded, “I trust him. I think law has no advantage to end this too soon. I don’t think the sheriff’s department is keeping anything from us. We are following our way through this.” “Patience is very hard. We like results. We are looking at this process and it’s overwhelming.”
The Hipps added, “There is a lot of speculation about what we are seeking. We have made it very clear from the very beginning that our motivation since Tucker’s death is first, the truth and second, change. I believe that the seeds of change are being planted even now as we speak. My hope is that those seeds watered by the truth.”
“The process will cost a lot of money. It’s cost us time and emotional investment, our lifestyle has been put on hold. Our lives changed on September 22nd so we don’t know what our lives are gonna be like. We will do whatever it takes to get him honored.”
Cindy and Gary Hipps are also turning into champions for changing Greek life.
“Change needs to occur deep within the culture. It’s not going to happen overnight and it’s not going to be something that a new task force is looking into, a new policy, a new dictatorship, it’s going to be the culture that has to change,” said Hipps.
When we asked how you change the culture, Hipps said education. “What does the whole pledge process really mean? What does hazing mean?” “There needs to be more transparency. It’s really a wooing process, but it’s not until they make a commitment so they really find out unless they’ve heard from other students what the culture is like after you pledge. I don’t believe for a second that Tucker knew everything that was going to be required of him.”
What We Know About The Case
Hipps was found dead in shallow water below the Highway 93 bridge over Lake Hartwell on Sept. 22. He was running with 26 other Sigma Phi Epsilon pledges and three fraternity members early that morning.
The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Thursday investigators used polygraph tests during their investigation into how Hipps fell headfirst off the bridge, but investigators declined to release who or how many people were polygraphed.
In a release Thursday afternoon, the sheriff’s office said the first 24-to-72 hours are crucial to the investigation.
Now, seven months later, it becomes “more and more difficult” to solve, said Captain Greg Reed of the Criminal Investigations Division of the Sheriff’s Office.
“But, that does not mean that this case, or any other, cannot be solved. The solving of Tucker’s death remains a top priority of the Sheriff’s Office and for the Criminal Investigations Division,” said Reed in the release.
Two weeks ago, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office assigned the investigation into his death to the unsolved crimes unit.
Earlier this week, Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw told our coverage partners at the Independent Mail the chances of the case being solved are “slim.”
Authorities say everyone involved in the run that morning has given consistent stories to investigators and they still don’t know how Hipps ended up in the water.
Hipps’ family filed a wrongful death lawsuit and a survival action lawsuit last month that name Clemson University, the national Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, the local Sig Ep chapter and three fraternity brothers as defendants.
The family is asking for more than $25 million in actual damages, plus punitive damages.
Those civil lawsuits allege a member of the fraternity confronted Hipps about failing to buy McDonald’s breakfast for all the pledges before he “went over the railing.”
The suit also claims that the group did not immediately search for Hipps or call authorities, and that they also tried to cover up the fact that he was missing.
Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis said Hipps’ toxicology results reveal he had no substances in his system that would have impaired him during the run.
Both the actions filed include demands for a jury trial.
Once the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office moved Hipps’ case to unsolved crimes investigations two weeks ago, 7 On Your Side sent the department a Freedom of Information Act request, asking for copies of any and all materials that have been part of the investigation.
OCSO spokesman Jimmy Watt responded with an email, saying state law gives the sheriff’s office the right not to release that info.
We asked Watt why the sheriff’s office still needs to be so tight-lipped.
“Well, it’s still an active and ongoing investigation, number one. Just because it’s been moved to unsolved crimes does not mean that the investigation has stopped,” said Watt.
“We also must maintain a level of fairness should any case bring charges and then go through the court process, where the selection of a jury could be tainted through the premature release of information,” said Reed in Thursday’s press release.
7 On Your Side called and emailed all the attorneys for the defendants named in the civil lawsuits.
Four attorneys responded.
“The facts look nothing like what the plaintiff’s allegations in the petition are,” said James Ewbank, who’s representing the national Sig Ep fraternity.
Ewbank said the national organization had no responsibility in Hipps’ death.
Columbia attorney Sterling Davies had no comment on the Clemson Sig Ep chapter’s involvement.
Greenville attorney Chip Price said his client, fraternity brother Campbell Starr, does not know what happened to Hipps.
Price said Camp bell was supervising at the front of the group of about 30 students participating in the run and Hipps was in the back.
Price declined to answer questions about why Starr’s call to campus police reporting Hipps missing was so vague.
“I’m calling to see if earlier this morning or at some point today y’all picked up like a 19-year-old guy with brown hair. He’s like my buddy. I’m looking for him,” said Price in a recording of the call.
The lawsuits say, at that point, Hipps had been missing for seven hours.
The lawsuits say Starr and fraternity brother Thomas King, who was also supervising the run, later tried to delete all phone calls from their cell phones from the days surrounding the run.
The lawsuits say King got in a confrontation with Hipps before he fell off the bridge about Hipps’ failure to buy McDonald’s breakfast for all the pledges that morning.
The office of King’s attorney, Larry Brandt of Walhalla, said Brandt had no comment Thursday.
The third fraternity brother named in the lawsuit is Samuel Carney, another Sig Ep brother who supervised the pledge run. He is the son of Delaware Congressman John Carney.
7 On Your Side checked with the Pickens County Courthouse Thursday and none of the defendants have filed their responses yet to those two civil lawsuits.
Ewbank said the attorneys agreed on an extension and it’s likely those responses won’t be filed until early June.
Investigators are offering a $20,000 reward for information in the case.
There are nine cases, beside Hipps’, in the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office’s unsolved crimes investigations unit.
If you have any details that may help authorities, call CrimeStoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.
