Friday, Oct. 11, 2002 | 11:18 a.m.
SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
RENO -- University of Nevada, Reno police planned a second day of interviews today in an attempt to determine why a freshman from Las Vegas drowned while swimming with members of his fraternity's pledge class in Manzanita Lake on the school's campus.
Investigators said Albert Jerome Refuerzo Santos, 18, a June graduate of Centennial High School, was part of a group of Pi Kappa Alpha pledges who were at the lake just past 2 a.m. Thursday.
"Our patrol officers received a call from dispatch that there was a person in the lake that they could not find," UNR Police Sgt. Marc Conley said.
Police Lt. Todd Renwick said that while members of the Washoe County Hasty Team searched the murky lake, campus officers checked the surrounding area to make sure nobody was hiding in bushes.
Divers recovered the body about two hours later.
Renwick said the county coroner's office ruled that Santos died from drowning. Toxicology test results were expected to take five to eight days or longer.
Renwick said indications were that other members of the group had been in the lake, but he did not know how many. Temperatures were in the mid 50s.
He said witness interviews were expected to continue through today and possibly into Saturday.
"Our No. 1 priority is to rebuild this whole incident and to find out what happened," Renwick said.
Santos was a biology major who had been in school a month and a half.
"I so deeply regret it," UNR President John Lilley said. "Young people feel so invincible. When something like this happens, it is a reminder of their vulnerability. My heart goes out to the family."
Regent Howard Rosenberg, who is a professor at UNR, said he burst into tears Thursday morning after learning about the accident.
"It's making me sick to my stomach," he said.
Rosenberg said that if the investigation finds that hazing was involved, it will not be tolerated.
Alicia Leruel, UNR student body president, said hazing "has been a conversation among students for several years."
"It's always been said that someone is going to die," Leruel said.
Pi Kappa Alpha was established on campus in 1986 and does not have a fraternity house, UNR spokesman John Trent said.
"As far as we know, they've never had any major violations," Trent said.
The campus has 10 other fraternities and four sororities. They have suspended all activities for at least a week.
A law passed by the 1999 Nevada Legislature makes hazing illegal at high schools and universities.
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