[Blakely] Kids aren't supposed
to die in college.
Kids aren't supposed
to die at all.
[Kennedi] I don't even think
we were a month into school yet,
before the news came,
breaking news.
[reporter 1] Police at Louisiana
State University investigating
the death of 18-year-old
freshman, Max Gruver.
[Kennedi] And it was like,
all hell broke loose.
No one knew what to do.
[Rae Ann] It was Max's time.
Max was gonna spread his wings.
College was really
gonna be his time.
♪ I keep drippin' ♪
♪ Candle in the sun ♪
♪ I've got nowhere
to run and hide ♪
♪ If I make it through
the night ♪
♪ Then nobody survives ♪
♪ Then take me
to the roof top now ♪
♪ And see if I can fly ♪
♪ Then take me
to the roof top now ♪
♪ And see if I can fly ♪
[Stephen] In the small
amount of time
that Max was on this planet
he made us better people.
[Rae Ann] Steve and I met, here,
in Atlanta, Georgia.
[Stephen] We got married
pretty quickly.
And we were engaged
within the first year.
And we ended up
in Roswell, Georgia,
which is just North of Atlanta.
And that's where we got
our first house.
That's where we started
our family.
Max was our first.
We were very excited
and he came to us
on January 27th, 1999.
[Stephen] From the beginning,
you knew
he was something special.
When he was just a little baby,
I walked into the room
and Max was sitting in his crib
and he had
one of his
Mickey Mouse is sitting here
and another Mickey Mouse
sitting here
and this is before he could even
really talk,
right, and he's got a book
out in front,
he's pretending
to read to his two Mickeys.
Growing up, he was
such an avid reader
and he loved sports.
[Rae Ann] The minute, you know,
he could start throwing a ball
he'd pick it up
and throw a ball.
He loved when his brother would
play and we'd go to his games.
[Stephen] Max and Alex, they're
almost exactly two years apart.
Those two were fast friends.
Very close brothers, you know,
from the beginning.
[Alex] I would call him
my best friend growing up.
One of the reason I always
looked up to Max was because
he was so carefree.
He would do something and say,
"Hey, I don't care
if you don't like it
or if you do like it."
"I like it, so I'm gonna do it."
After Alex, four years later,
we had Lily-Kate.
[Lily] I think, not only
do we butt heads,
because we were
oldest and youngest
but I think we were also
just very similar.
My mom always tells me that
I remind her a lot of Max.
I think, his personality
runs a lot in my personality
as I grew up, so...
That's pretty cool.
Max coached me in basketball
in fifth and sixth grade.
Her team wasn't gonna
be able to play because
no one would step up
and coach the team.
Well, Max is like,
well, I'll do it.
[Alex] He literally loved every
second of it, and the girls all,
all the girls on the team,
they all loved him.
[Lily] One time, I fouled out
completely, like, I couldn't
play anymore and I thought
it was a really bad thing.
I ran off and I was crying
and he just picked me up
and I hugged him and it was...
it was very nice to have him
there, for sure.
[Mike] If you ever had a problem
or there's anything in your life
he's gonna be there
right by your side to help
you get through it.
He's gonna be there to make
you laugh and just be
the kind person
to you the whole time.
[Blakely] As college years
approached,
Max definitely wanted to be
a sports writer.
That's something
he enjoyed doing
on a lower scale
in high school.
[Stephen] He started working for
a company called Def Pen Radio.
Max wrote over 360 articles
on basketball.
That was his dream,
he wanted to continue that.
[Rae Ann] Max started applying
to colleges
and you know, we were talking
about schools
and he definitely wanted
to go to, a big school,
like, an ACC or an SEC school,
because of the sports.
LSU was the first school
he heard back from
with an acceptance,
and him and Steve went
to go see the school and,
let me tell you,
they did everything right there
at LSU.
We had such
a great time together.
♪ My crew green ♪
♪ My crew violent ♪
[tiger roars]
♪ I'm all up in the terminal
after that dollars and blunts ♪
♪ I may burn a few... ♪
And, you know, after that,
he came home, that Saturday
and walked in my house with his
LSU, you know, Tiger Bound sign
in his hand
that they took on the plane
and, I was like, oh, my gosh,
he's, he's gonna go there,
I can tell, that's where
he wants to go.
♪ Pushin' to the limit
I'm in it to win it ♪
♪ I'm in it to win it, yeah
I'm in it to win it ♪
[Kennedi] LSU means a lot
to the community out here.
Louisiana State University.
We bleed our purple and gold.
[commentator] Tiger's defenses
still as steady.
Billy Cannon takes it
on the 11.
And runs a gauntlet
of Mississippi tacklers.
♪ I'm on it ♪
♪ Had some bad nights ♪
♪ And there were
good mornings ♪
[Kennedi] You hear, "Go Tigers!"
all throughout the streets.
[crowd] Go, Tigers!
Being a student at LSU
is unlike any other.
[Rae Ann] Over the summer,
before Max went to school,
he started talking a little bit
about fraternities.
[Kennedi] So many people
come to LSU
specifically, just to join
Greek life.
[Christian] When I originally
came to LSU,
I believe there are around
These are long, historic,
established fraternities
that have been there for a while
in LSU's campus.
[Rae Ann] Max went through Rush
right after he got dropped off
at school, they have, like, week
of Rush before school starts.
♪ I'll probably die ♪
♪ I'll probably die ♪
♪ Tryin' to be everything
you want ♪
♪ So tell me why... ♪
Max and I first met during
the formal recruitment process
for LSU,
what we like to call Rush.
We kinda found that we clicked
very quickly.
We were both looking at some
of the same fraternities.
We both were going through
this process
really, to find our group
of friends that we were gonna,
you know, stick with for
the rest of our college time.
[Rae Ann] Phi Delta Theta
was at the top of his list
and he really, really liked
Phi Delta Theta
because it was a smaller
fraternity on campus,
and we think, Max liked that.
And, he really liked the guys
in his pledge class.
[Stephen] I went online
and did some research
on phi Delta Theta and
I landed on a page that...
This is for parents...
Parents, You're going to love...
your son's decision to join
Phi Delta Theta.
We have zero tolerance
for hazing.
And I saw that
and I was like, wow,
you know, Max has really made
some great decisions
with this fraternity.
[Rae Ann] Max kept talking
a lot about leadership.
I remember him telling us
he'd been up for like,
pledge call president
at the time and,
and he just really thought
he could do a lot of things
within the fraternity
and I was excited for him.
He was happy.
I felt that every single day...
that Max...
he's doing his thing.
On September 14th,
I was at work.
I worked at a doctor's office
and all of sudden,
my phone rang.
[phone ringing]
[Rae Ann] And we were getting up
to go to lunch, it was noon.
And, I looked at the phone
and it said Baton Rouge
across it.
And it was a man on the phone
and he...
was a nurse from the hospital.
And, he said, you know,
"Is this Mrs. Gruver?
Are you Max Gruver's mom?"
And I, you know, said, yes,
and he's like,
your son was just brought in,
he was found unconscious...
Some of his friends found him.
And...
they brought him
into the hospital.
[Stephen] I got a phone call
from Rae Ann,
she just kept saying,
something's wrong with Max.
Something is wrong with Max.
I remember telling everybody
at work,
"Okay, I gotta go, I gotta go."
And I just remember, you know,
looking to the sky
and praying to God that,
Max is okay.
When I get home, I learn
everything is fine, Max is okay.
You know, please, God,
Max is okay.
[Rae Ann] I was probably at my
house, trying to figure out,
what do I... I'm gonna have to
go to Louisiana, what do I take?
And then they called again,
and...
the nurse, he said,
Mrs. Gruver, we did...
[voice breaking] we did
everything we could do.
We worked on Max
for 45 minutes but...
he didn't make it.
[Stephen] I just... I yelled,
I screamed, um...
It was awful, just awful.
Lily and Alex
were still at school.
And we had to get them home.
They learned just like I did,
when they walked in the front
door...
in the foyer.
Just a terrible, terrible day.
[Alex] They came up to me
and hugged me
and told me right then
and there.
And we just... We just sat there
and we...
we cried together, like, that's
I mean,
I didn't know what to do,
nobody knows what to do
in that situation so...
[Lily] I went to his room
with my mom
and I put on one of his big,
large white T-shirts
that looked like a dress on me.
That's all I really remember
from that day.
[Hillar] Upon arrival
at the hospital,
Max's Gruver's
blood alcohol level
was extremely high
and it was a deadly dose.
[Morgan] The hospital
immediately contacted
the coroner
for an investigation...
'cause the circumstances
surrounding
this young man's death
were suspicious.
[Hillar] The coroner's office
called the LSU police department
and notified them.
At the same time,
Max Gruver's family
is being notified
and no one is really sure
of exactly what happened.
[Stephen] We knew that Max
had passed away
and we needed to get to
Baton Rouge as soon as possible.
[Morgan] At the same time,
law enforcement is notified
by the director of Greek Life
that Max had passed away
in the Phi Delta Theta house,
it's right there on campus.
They shortly arrived,
two minutes after.
[Hillar] Everyone was
kinda shocked
and shaking their head that
a young person, who is
a freshman, is dead.
And he's dead, potentially,
as a result of
a night of very serious,
dangerous drinking.
[Morgan] The pledge educator
also sends a message out
to the pledges to also come
to the house.
[Christian] We got a message
saying, everyone needed
to come to the house right now.
Everyone shows up to the house
and the next thing we know...
the head of LSU's Greek Life
at the time...
comes through the door
and just says,
I don't know why
you guys are talking,
this is a m*rder investigation.
And that was the first we knew
that Max was dead.
And, it hit me pretty hard
um, I didn't really know
what to do.
I definitely didn't wanna stay
in that house anymore.
We were, not technically
detained,
but my opinion, detained.
We got brought to a separate
facility that LSU had.
They took our phones
and everything,
we weren't allowed
to talk to each other
and they took each
of our statements.
Detective: We've called all the
frat- fraternity members in...
Detective: ...and we're gonna
talk with each
of y'all about what knowledge
y'all have...
Detective: ...of the events that
took
place last night and this
morning...
Detective: ...regarding, uh,
Max.
Law enforcement was smart enough
to know
we have to keep
interviewing people
'cause this isn't just
a normal case.
People don't get that blood
alcohol content in their blood
at a normal college party.
Detective: Look, I don't know
if anybody is a suspect.
Detective: I don't know if
everybody is a suspect.
Detective: I don't know anything
and that's
the only reason we're doing this
right now.
[Christian] That was, really
the, the pinnacle of when
all of us kinda realized, like,
holy cow, the severity
of the situation, like,
he's gone.
Detective: I'm trying to get a
picture
for this young man's family...
Detective: ...who are flying
down from Georgia.
Detective: Which, I'm sure,
I can't even imagine
what's going through their mind.
[Morgan] Enough information
is given to give the police
an idea that there was
a hazing event, a pledge event,
the night that Max passed away.
That it did occur
at the fraternity house.
[Jonathon] And reports are,
that as the night went on,
as the ritual went on,
Max started being
particularly targeted.
[Hillar] And that
things look like,
he was particularly targeted
for this night of, you know,
excessive drinking and hazing.
Pledge: Actives told us
to come for "Bible study."
Pledge: That's what
they call it.
Pledge: We were told to get
there before 10. Don't be late.
We'd heard about Bible Study,
guys mentioning it casually,
actives, to each other
and stuff like that.
Our Bible
was our Phikeia Manual.
So, that's your pledge manual.
Essentially, a book they give
to every new member pledge,
that gives you history
of the fraternity...
Even things like etiquette and
where you should put
forks and knives
when you're setting up a table.
So, everything
that you need to know
about the fraternity
is supposed to be in that book.
It's supposed to be
your best friend,
read it throughout its entirety,
probably 40 times so you know it
all like the back of your hand.
So, we finally got
the message, like,
hey, you know, be here, tonight,
for Bible Study.
Bring your manual,
and all that stuff.
And, so, we were like,
okay, like,
let's see what this is about.
We really had no kind of clue
what we were gonna step into,
we just knew
it was gonna be a... some
sort of hazing type of thing.
You feel like what you're
walking into, you're gonna
walk out of it and
you're gonna be safe and fine
but, hindsight, that's just not
the reality of it.
[Rae Ann] We know that
Max arrived
at approximately 9:50 p.m.
Him and I were Snapchatting
and he had told me,
he'd gone to dinner
with some friends and
then he was gonna run by
the fraternity house and
I Snapchatted to him,
I love you, and he Snapped
back, you know, I love you too.
[Morgan] He was dropped off
by two of his female friends
that were not associated
with the fraternity.
And according to them,
Max had not been drinking
prior to the Bible Study and had
not done any ill*gal substances
prior to the Bible Study.
There were probably 10-15, maybe
upwards of 20 pledges there.
But no more than 20 pledges
for the Bible Study.
They'd only been pledges for
a couple of weeks at the point.
[Christian] Formal fraternity
recruitment at LSU,
which we all called Rush,
is very structured.
Obviously, everyone is putting
their best face forward.
But just receiving a bid
or an invitation to join
does not mean you're gonna
end up being an active brother
or get initiated.
During the pledge period,
for the lack of a better term,
pledges are having
to prove themselves
to the active members.
[Christian] Pledges are kind of
expected to be on call, 24/7.
Whether it is bringing a brother
to a class,
or picking him up some lunch,
going to clean his house
or apartment,
really, anything and everything
under the sun...
you're probably gonna
get asked to do.
There's definitely some men who,
you know,
respect the lines that
come with the pledges
but there is plenty, plenty,
that abuse those favors.
A lot of the typical abusers
of those pledge favors
tend to take, like, pride
in the fact that they do that.
And a lot of those guys
tended to
talk negatively towards you.
They kinda made you feel like
you were a separate group from
this brotherhood
you were tryna join in.
Made you feel like
you were lesser than
and you had to really earn
your spot here.
And it really kinda messes up
your experience
during that pledge process.
A lot of the things that you get
asked to do are hazing but...
I was never scared to go grab
someone's food or,
you know, go clean their
apartment or any of that stuff.
But that looming invite of
you know, come here for this,
come to the house now,
everyone needs to be here.
We always get a bit of anxiety
when you're taking that ride
over to the house
or walking to the house.
Just not knowing what
you're about to go through...
once you get inside the doors.
Pledge: They gave off the air
that...
Pledge: ...like, we wouldn't go
through anything like this.
[Kennedi] I was a student
reporter at the time
and, gosh, I don't even think
we were a month into school yet
before the breaking news came.
And it was like,
all hell broke loose.
No one knew what to do.
[Rae Ann] So many things
were coming in.
I was amazed how many people
knew about it.
I mean, again,
it's on social media.
All of a sudden, like,
I am on the plane,
and before we took off,
I get a text
from a friend of mine
and she says,
you know, please tell me,
it's not true,
I just got a text
from my daughter
and...
you know, I just, you know,
started crying harder,
and I'm like, how do...
'cause how could
that be real, right.
How does my, this friend,
already know and her daughter
goes to school
at Georgia Southern.
[Kennedi] News teams
from everywhere
CNN, ABC, NBC,
everyone coming on campus, just
to figure out what happened.
All of a sudden,
the university president,
F. King Alexander,
there's a big press conference.
We, in the LSU community,
are grieving today.
The death of Maxwell Gruver
was tragic and untimely.
There were allegations that
they were related to hazing
but I want to emphasize that
this is a evolving situation.
We are investigating
this matter
with the utmost seriousness.
Hazing is dangerous,
irresponsible and unacceptable.
And it will not be tolerated
at LSU, period.
As a result, all,
I mean all, Greek activities
are suspended indefinitely,
pending the results
of a thorough investigation.
And everyone went crazy.
[news reporter] This evening
representatives
of every fraternity
and sorority
on campus held a closed door
meeting about the incident.
Any comments
on the meeting, guys.
I don't have anything to say.
A whole group of folks from LSU
asked if they could come see us.
And they were very forthright
with information
and that it potentially was,
you know, a hazing incident
and something happened
at the Phi Delta Theta house.
And there would be
an on-going investigation.
That, you know, obviously,
makes you very angry, right.
'Cause, you know that something
happened to your son
that shouldn't have happened
to your son.
That Max died from hazing
in the fraternity house,
a fraternity that has zero
tolerance for hazing.
So, you're getting all these
details and you're like,
how could this possibly
have happened?
[Rae Ann] That afternoon,
we were able to go see Max.
And... you know, we hadn't
seen him yet.
They had done an autopsy
on him that morning and
in the afternoon,
they had called and said,
you know, we could come
and see him.
That may be the worst moment
of all of this, was seeing him.
It was seeing him in the funeral
home on a slab and...
it was just, in a white T-shirt
and a thin blanket was over him.
I mean, that's when it really
became real,
like, that was actually him.
[Stephen] Really,
all you wanna know is
what happened?
How could this happen to my son?
You know, what led up to it?
Who's responsible?
And Hillar and Morgan made sure
that all those questions
were answered.
[Morgan] We learned that that
night, the actives were asking
the pledges to get
in a line downstairs.
The actives we know are present
at the Bible Study
are Matthew Naquin, a sophomore,
Ryan Isto is also a sophomore,
he was Matthew Naquin's
roommate.
And Sean-Paul Gott,
who was a junior
and he had a room in the house.
They take their cellphones,
and the way
that the Phi Delta Theta
house is laid out,
the common area is downstairs
and the entire upstairs
is just one, long hallway
with bedrooms on either side.
And Matthew Naquin tells
all the pledges to go upstairs.
Pledge: They had all the
upstairs lights off.
Pledge: And they had a strobe
light.
Pledge: And loud music.
[loud music plays]
And that's when the real, like,
yelling, yelling started
and we're all told like,
alright, turn around,
and put your nose
against the wall.
The pledges are turning,
being asked esoteric questions
about the fraternity
and other things.
[Christian] Founding fathers,
notable alumni,
founding history,
founding dates.
Any of the history that
some of the actives knew
and wanted to ask you.
If you get it right,
it goes to the next person,
if you get it wrong,
you take a pull of alcohol.
Detective: They were just
drinking it straight
out of the bottle?
Active: Yes, sir.
For as long as the member
standing in front of them
told them to drink.
Pledge: Take a 10 second pull.
Pledge: Uh, take a 5 second
pull.
Pledge: One of them told me
to take a 5 second...
Pledge: ...and I didn't want to.
Pledge: I was like, "Can I take
a 3 second?"
Pledge: It was like, "No, take a
Pledge: And I did.
And there was a mix
of alcohol in the beginning,
Captain Morgan,
but it eventually became
almost exclusively, Diesel.
Hundred and ninety
proof alcohol.
[Morgan] Regular liquor
is 80 proof.
This has twice the potency.
[Jonathon] Basically, the
strongest alcohol you can make.
It smells like gasoline
and tastes
probably worse than I would
expect gasoline to taste like.
And I was not quite prepared for
Diesel or any of that kind
of stuff to be used.
They realized once
they were asked to take
the first drink of it,
how potent it was.
And we were able to
find some bottles that
had been left behind
at the house.
[Jonathon] As witnesses
were coming forward
and talking to law enforcement
Matthew Naquin's name kept
coming up over and over again.
Detective: Were any of the
actives more vocal...
Detective: ...and a little bit
more out of the box,
pushing the drinking than
others?
Pledge: Um, absolutely, um...
Detective: Who were the
more aggressive ones?
Pledge: Matthew Naquin was
the...
Pledge: ...definitely the
leader.
Most of the other actives
just filtered in and out.
Naquin was one of the only ones
there the entirety of it.
Pledge: It's a name
that you've probably heard
over and over again.
Pledge: Matthew Naquin.
Pledge: Matthew Naquin.
Pledge: He was the most
aggressive
when it came to this stuff.
Detective: Was he intense
last night?
Pledge: Yes.
Pledge: He was...
Pledge: ...screaming a lot.
Pledge: He was...
Pledge: ...very upset whenever
we didn't know the answers.
Pledge: He probably handed out
the most alcohol to us.
[Christian] If Naquin ever
gave it to me,
it was... for me, pretty quick,
chug, whatever.
But every time, the couple
of times that I noticed
Max taking pulls,
it was not a quick one
and it was also not his choice
to not make it a quick one.
He was identified by witnesses
as the person
leading the Bible Study
or one of the leaders.
And also as a person
who was particularly
targeting Max that night.
[Morgan] From what
we understood,
Matthew Naquin was the main one
making Max drink that night.
and then as the night progressed
Matthew Naquin honed in on Max.
[Jonathon] And he was asked
to take more pulls
and longer pulls by farer
than any other pledge.
[Morgan] According to the
pledges, Max was so intoxicated
that he had a trash bag placed
around his neck
because they were worried
he would vomit.
After he had the trash bag
placed around his neck
is when Matthew Naquin
was honing in on him
and making him drink the Diesel
even though he knew
he was intoxicated.
Detective: Okay, so when it
ended, what happened?
Pledge: They just turned the
lights on, we walked downstairs.
Max sat back on
to a couch and...
very hardly, like, hit his head
on the windowsill behind him.
And I was like, Oh, s**t, so,
instantly the pledge brothers
kinda go around him, you know,
and, okay, like, are you good,
are you good.
"No, I'm just drunk,
I'm just drunk. Okay, okay"
Active: We were gonna bring
him home, but I mean...
Active: ...he could barely walk.
Active: So we decided
best bet was to, um...
Active: ...just let him sleep
it off at the house.
All we knew about Max was that
he was gonna stay at the house
so that an active could stay
with him the rest of the night.
Detective: Were you all worried
about him?
Active: I was worried about him.
Yes, sir.
[Christian] The next morning,
I texted some
of my pledge brothers, I'm like,
hey, let's go check on Max,
you know, let's go see how
hungover he is, whatever.
And we walk into
the fraternity house
and Max is still on the couch
and I could instantly kinda tell
something was wrong.
He looked pale and
he was cold to the touch,
his lips had started
to discolor.
At that point, I said, like,
I cannot feel a pulse,
I cannot feel a pulse.
So, me and my couple
of pledge brothers
carried, in my opinion,
Max's lifeless body
to a car and put him
in the back seat
so that he could get driven
to the hospital
and that was all we knew.
[Rae Ann] We were definitely
getting more information
and more information
was coming out
and it's just shocking, right.
This is my son's last night
on Earth and
he's being forced to drink,
you know,
copious amounts of alcohol,
you know, for what reason,
you know,
to join an organization, to be
a brother to somebody else,
you know, what exactly
is anyone proving
to someone else
if they can drink
copious amounts of 190 proof
grain alcohol.
And then I just, I know I kept
thinking about
what was Max's last night like.
Like...
Was he in pain? Did he
know anything was going on?
Did he know
he was starting to get sick?
We know that Max died,
from the coroner,
around 4 or 5 a.m.
[Morgan] They found that
his cause of death
was alcohol intoxication
with aspiration.
[Stephen] He died because he had
so much liquid in his lungs
from vomiting and just inhaling
it and...
Just the horror that goes
through that level
of intoxication and death
happened to Max on that couch.
It's painful they let him die
on that couch
and did nothing,
never called 9-1-1.
Never did anything
to try to save his life.
That's how your child, you know,
leaves you
and leaves this Earth.
I mean, that's horrific.
[Christian] That's what probably
the hardest thing is...
knowing that the last time
you saw him, you could've,
you felt like you could've done
something,
you noticed he was drunk
and instead you went home.
And you weren't there for him
when he really needed you.
After that, my grades slipped,
I dropped to about 100lbs.
My parents made the decision,
with one
of the LSU psychiatrists
to pull me from LSU.
I got therapy 3-4 times a week
for the entire rest
of that semester with
the goal to make it back to LSU
in the spring.
And then, from there on,
it's just the constant
knowing that Max
is never going to be there.
And that's a best friend that
I'll never get to see again.
[Hillar] As the interviews
progressed, we learned a lot,
not only through the police
department but
also through the students
of the student
Accountability Office.
[Morgan] Student Advocacy and
Accountability is an offshoot
of the LSU dean's office,
and they look into violations
of the student code of conduct
and make investigations
whenever there is
a student death.
So, they are making
an investigation
parallel separate from LSUPD.
They were able to get
more details about
the events in the weeks
leading up to Max's death.
And what we were able
to ascertain
was from the day that Max
was going to get a bid
in Phi Delta Theta,
Matthew Naquin
did not want him
in that fraternity.
And he actively didn't want him
in that fraternity
up until his death.
We learned through
the investigation that
you know, Matthew just did not
like my son,
'cause he was supposedly late
to certain events
and Matthew had it out for him.
[Hillar] From what we learned,
Matthew Naquin
did not like Max Gruver.
Did not think that he was
an appropriate member
for his fraternity.
Made it really clear
that he should not be a member.
In fact Gruver was given a bid,
Matthew Naquin tore up that bid
and said, he's not gonna be
a part of this.
[Morgan] The next day,
Max was given another bid.
They wrote him another bid card
and was extended the invitation
to pledge the fraternity.
[Hillar] More telltale was
the fraternity had a meeting.
And they were discussing
Matthew Naquin's behavior
in the fraternity as a leader,
and particularly, as it kinda
related to the pledges.
[Morgan] As a part of
the pledging responsibilities
Phi Delta Theta
had their pledges
stake out a tailgating spot,
the Friday night
before the LSU football game.
And Matthew Naquin came
to that location
with a airsoft g*n...
and shot pledges.
[Christian] I remember him
sh**ting me
in the back with an airsoft g*n
while we're trying to set up
the tailgate
for the brothers for the next
day, and,
yeah, we're getting pelted
by BBs.
And I can tell you,
it stung a good bit.
I had a nice, little mark
on the back of my leg
when I got shot
and it was not fun.
[Rae Ann] The Monday night
before the Bible Study
the executive board had
had a meeting about Matthew
because of his dangerous
and reckless activity
with the pledges.
[Morgan] After that
board meeting,
they had an active meeting,
with all of the active members
of Phi Delta Theta.
At that active meeting,
they gave an overall reprimand
to all of the active members
to be safe with the pledges,
to not be sadistic with them.
Also, after the meeting,
a vice president,
the pledge educator
specifically singled out
Matthew Naquin
and told him he was worried
about how he was interacting
with pledges, and Matthew Naquin
told him,
"I will do what I want."
[Rae Ann] And then
two nights later,
him and his buddies were
in-charge of this Bible Study
and he k*lled my son.
The funeral was at
St. Peter Chanel
which is the church we go to.
[Blakely] I was the first person
in the viewing
that wasn't family.
And I just saw the top
of his head
out of the casket and...
collapsed.
Alex's friends were behind me
and caught me and had to
walk me down to it.
[Alex] It was a pretty
massive funeral,
it felt like, I didn't really
look 'cause I was in the front
and I didn't want to look
at everybody
but from what I heard
from all of my friends,
they were like, dude,
it was insanely packed.
There were so many people, like,
it was almost out the church,
and I was like,
wow, like, that's awesome.
That just shows, like,
the impact he had
on the community and like,
people around him,
like, they all wanted
to be there.
[Lily] It definitely took me
a few months
to really, I think,
admit to myself
that he was gone.
And I wouldn't be able to see
him again.
I was still stuck in that
thought of, oh,
he'll be coming back from school
in a little while.
So, it definitely took me
a minute to, like,
really get those tears out
and understand that,
yeah, he was not gonna
be coming back.
At that point, we believed
that there's gonna be
criminal liability
and criminal action
taken by the police department.
The issue, though, for us is,
we're dealing with
a hazing statute
that has no teeth.
[Morgan] At that point in time,
in September of 2017,
there was a hazing law
in effect.
Only one hazing law in effect
in Louisiana
that had been in effect since
the early 1900s.
[Hillar] That law was really
not designed at the time
to encompass
great bodily harm or death,
it was just hazing,
some activity that students do.
Law itself is like,
a paragraph long.
The maximum punishment
was a hundred dollar fine
and 30 days in jail.
[Jonathon] There was
a real concern
that there would not be
real accountability.
for the people who did this
to Max.
Where the law on hazing
isn't strong in a state,
like it wasn't in Louisiana
when this happened to Max,
it creates many additional
hurdles for the prosecution.
[Hillar] And we had to look
to see, are there other
laws that had been violated,
that fit this situation.
[Stephen] We had very
specific conversations
with Hillar and Morgan about how
they're going to prosecute
the bad actors in Max's case.
They had to go through
a lot more work
to try to figure out
how to hold these
individuals responsible.
Ultimately, the most responsible
individual, Matthew Naquin.
And the only law that applied
was negligent homicide.
[Morgan] On October 11th, 2017,
the LSUPD feels like
they have enough information
to make arrests
of ten young men.
I remember being a reporter,
and we found out early
in the morning.
[Kennedi reporting] Ten people
face charges
in connection
to Gruver's death.
All are charged with hazing,
and Matthew Naquin
faces an additional charge
of negligent homicide.
Saturday will mark exactly
one month
since Max Gruver
has passed away.
I am so appreciative of
the DA team and Hillar Moore,
knowing that that Matthew needed
to be charged with something.
He was not just going to be
charged with hazing,
because Max died.
[Morgan] After
the LSUPD arrests,
our office took on
the investigation,
and we decided it would be
a good idea to confiscate
the phones of those
who were arrested,
so that we could see
if there was anything
that we could present
to the grand jury
to let them know the level
of culpability involved
as it relates
to these young men.
And the only phone that
we're not able to open
after exhaustive efforts,
and after requesting a passcode,
is Matthew Naquin's phone.
Ultimately, the judge ruled
that he would have to give
his passcode,
and he was given a grace period
to appeal that decision,
and during that grace period,
the FBI
was able to open
Matthew Naquin's phone.
And approximately 700
files were deleted.
We looked at the time
of this deletion.
Matthew Naquin's attorney
was contacted on November 8th
at 3 o'clock about the warrant
for his client's phone.
He then called Matthew Naquin.
And 40 minutes after the phone
call with his attorney,
Matthew Naquin is deleting
[Hillar] It's obvious that
someone has something to hide.
There was something on the phone
that somebody didn't want us
to see...
We did make efforts to restore
those files,
but weren't... unable to recover
the deleted files.
When we did get into
Matthew Naquin's phone,
we were able to look at
his search histories.
And there was a specific
search history
a little over two weeks
before Max's death
for Everclear, versus liquor.
To search what the relative
potencies were.
Everclear, just 190 proof.
Diesel is 190 proof.
So Matthew Naquin was aware
of the consequences
and the risks of using
this type of alcohol.
This is the first time
he's in the position
to be able to direct pledges.
And Diesel 190 alcohol
is the alcohol
that he chooses
to use that night.
That's how Max got to that
level of alcohol poisoning
within his system,
and that's what k*lled him.
[Kennedi] When more information
started to come out,
I mean, reading it,
it was disgusting.
[Lily] The story made me angry.
I was confused why people
would purposely
do that to my brother.
[Alex] When I went to college,
I had some friends
that would say, like, hazing,
we don't do it that bad.
And I'm like, well, the fact
you're doing it at all
is just messed up,
you shouldn't do it at all.
[Kennedi] And think about
one of those boys.
I mean, ten people got arrested.
If one of them
would have stood up
and said, we're not doing this,
Max Gruver could possibly
still be alive today.
[Morgan] So after the arrests,
all of these cases
were taken to grand jury.
And in March of 2018,
the first indictment
was for Matthew Naquin,
and he was indicted
for negligent homicide.
The second indictment
was for Sean-Paul Gott.
He was indicted
for misdemeanor hazing.
And the third indictment
was for Ryan Isto.
He was indicted for misdemeanor
hazing as well.
No other people were indicted.
Ryan Isto and Sean-Paul Gott,
once they pled,
the ball was in their court
to cooperate
and then also
to testify truthfully
at the trial against
Matthew Naquin.
[Rae Ann] When we went to trial,
about two years later,
it was a very hard two weeks.
[Blakely] Rae Ann and Steve
were very nice
to get me a plane ticket.
I flew through a hurricane
to get there.
The trial had already started
by the time I got there.
But it was a very surreal
experience.
[Morgan] Upwards of 40 witnesses
were called.
And of those witnesses,
were pledges that were there
at the Bible Study that night
and ten actives.
[Stephen] Having to relive that
night over and over
is extremely emotional.
It's very difficult.
I can just picture Max
throughout that night
and in the morning, and,
you know, it just...
it's visuals
you don't want to have.
[Jonathon] The theme throughout
defense counsel's questioning
and cross-examining
of witnesses
kept using the term free-will.
Mr. Gruver was his
own free-will.
His own free-will,
his own free-will.
Morgan Johnson,
who was the prosecutor
who led this case,
turned it around.
And she said,
let's talk about free-will.
And Mr. Naquin had free-will
when he decided
to grab that Diesel bottle
and hand it to Max and tell him
to drink again
and again and again.
So if we want to talk about
free-will,
let's talk about whose
free-will here resulted
in Mr. Gruver's death.
[Morgan] A fellow pledge who was
next to line in Max that night,
said, I believe from the bottom
of my heart
that if Matthew Naquin
wasn't in that house that night,
Max Gruver would still be alive.
No one asked him
any more questions
because he said
what needed to be said.
[Kennedi] When they read
the verdict,
and I just remember everyone
just being on the edge
of their seats,
and we're waiting,
and everyone is holding
their breath,
you can hear a pin drop.
The jury came back in less than
an hour with a guilty verdict.
[Stephen] Both of us just
broke down in tears
and just cried because...
we got some closure from this.
They did convict.
[Morgan] He had to serve
two and a half years
in Department of Correction.
And then when he got out,
he was subject to three years
supervised probation.
And if he didn't comply
with supervised probation,
he would go back to prison for
another two and a half years.
Based on what the judge
heard at trial,
he decided to sentence Ryan Isto
and Sean-Paul Gott
what the max was at that point
in time,
and a $100 fine.
Sean-Paul Gott and
Matthew Naquin
were expelled by the school.
[Jonathon] There were
some consequences
for the organization as well.
The fraternity was expelled
from LSU's campus until 2033.
[Stephen] After the trial was
over, we wanted to decompress.
And we couldn't think
of any place better to go
than to Chimes, certainly
his favorite restaurant.
[Blakely] And we walk in,
we sit down
just to get something to eat,
water, whatever, and...
in the restaurant,
I Don't Want to Miss a Thing,
by Aerosmith came on and
that was Rae Ann and Max's song.
♪ I don't wanna fall asleep ♪
♪ 'Cause I'd miss you baby ♪
♪ And I don't wanna
miss a thing ♪♪
[Blakely] That's like the song
she wanted to dance to
with him at his wedding.
She sang it to him like, oh,
he was little and growing up.
And that was kind of like...
his wink to us, knowing that
it was going to be okay.
[Stephen] The whole time,
Max has been guiding us
down this path
to try to create change.
So, we created
the Max Gruver Foundation,
which is about helping
to create that change.
[Rae Ann] You know, we've spoken
to well over, I don't know,
you know,
probably over 150,000
students total at this point.
[Stephen] We try to get as many
folks from the university
there as possible,
certainly Greek Life.
But we welcome
all the sports teams,
all the clubs,
when we go and speak.
And we want to educate them
on what hazing is.
And just how bad it is
and how it can escalate
and turn into something horrible
like what happened to our son.
[Rae Ann] And a big thing
we've been doing
is that we've made a high school
education program.
Steve and I tell Max's story.
And then a local
Phi Delta Theta chapter
talk about the realities of,
you know, hazing.
And it's really been effective.
[Stephen] What really got us
to form this relationship
was just speaking
with Sean Wagner.
Sean is the head
of the Phi Delta Thetas.
He knows that they failed
miserably at LSU.
And he's got passion.
That relationship's
been instrumental
in just amplifying our voice.
[Jonathon] Less than a year
after Max's death,
the governor of Louisiana signed
the Max Gruver Act
that made fundamental changes
to the hazing law in Louisiana.
[Morgan] Hazing is now a felony
in Louisiana.
[Jonathon] It creates reporting
requirements
for schools and fraternities
if there's hazing incidents.
It makes it a crime not to seek
medical assistance
for someone in situations
like Max.
[Stephen] And we've gotten
some change
in the state of Georgia as well.
We have a Max Gruver Act
that requires reporting
with respect to hazing
in every university.
[Jonathon] And one of the things
that Gruver's are doing
is try to advocate for
and push through a federal law
that would make hazing
a federal crime
with uniform standards
across the country.
[Rae Ann] You know, if we can
change one kid's mind,
then we've done what we want
to do for Max.
[Rae Ann] We miss you, big guy.
And we hope
we're making you proud.
♪ Nobody survives ♪
♪ Then take me
to the roof top now ♪
♪ And see if I can fly ♪
♪ Then take me
to the roof top now ♪
♪ And see if I can fly ♪♪
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02x04 - Max Gruver
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Follow the true story of six college students whose lives ended in a tragic m*rder.
Follow the true story of six college students whose lives ended in a tragic m*rder.