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This episode discusses youth, depression and suicide. These topics may be distressing for some listeners. The tragedy that began in the summer of 2016 didn't just make headlines in Kirksville, Missouri. As students at Truman State University and the surrounding community began killing themselves, it made headlines around the world. It began as an ordinary summer in Kirksville, a college town in northern Missouri, about three hours away from St. Louis. But in August, when members of the fraternity Alpha Kappa Lambda started dying by suicide, the community paid attention. On August 7, Alex Mullins took his own life by hanging himself from a wardrobe in his room at the fraternity house. This was the first of the suicides. He was discovered by one of his fraternity brothers. When medics arrived, they declared Alex de dead. It was a terrible situation, but police didn't suspect anything that could be considered criminal. But just 20 days later, another Alpha Kappa Lambda brother killed himself in the same way. He was found by a fraternity brother who got him to the ground, performed CPR, and yelled out for someone to call 911. And in both instances, that fraternity brother was Brandon Grossheim. Brandon was a psychology major who had been very close to both victims. He mistakenly believed he had a near superhuman ability to help depressed people. And that's not all. When he moved off campus, his brand new neighbor from across the hall named Alex Vogt killed himself. Brandon was one of the last people to see him alive. Alex Vogt was actually the third of the four suicides in this cluster. But his name wasn't brought to the public's attention until after the fourth death, the death of yet another fraternity brother at Alpha Kappa Lambda. This was Josh Thomas. Josh was found with a piece of paper with Brandon's name and email addresses written on it. So that was the order of the deaths. Number one, Alex Mullins. Number two, Jake Hughes. Number three, Alex Vogt. And number four, Josh Thomas. And all four of them were close with Brandon Grossheim. The parents of the victims, the fellow fraternity members and outside observers all began to wonder. Was it a tragic coincidence that Brandon Grossheim knew these victims so intimately? Or was Grossheim somehow involved? This podcast series tells the story of the most infamous suicide cluster in American history. It's a production of I Heart Podcasts and Cool Fire Studios. I'm your host Ben Westoff, along with Ryan Krull. This is the Peacemaker. All of these deaths in a row were shocking, but there was precedent. Mental health experts call them suicide clusters. The definition of cluster is when there is about three or more deaths following some type of suicide. So you've got three or more people who kill themselves within maybe a six to 18 month period after there's been a suicide attempt or a suicide, a completed suicide in their vicinity. That's Rita Lachevsky, a trainer on suicide prevention and mental health for Community Advocates in Milwaukee. She notes that suicides are on the rise. Almost 50,000Americans killed themselves in 2022. That's a record. What was strange to me is that suicides actually fell during COVID As Liszewski explained, since everyone was cooped up, there was much less FOMO during COVID Nobody belonged. Nobody belonged because we were all isolated in our houses. We didn't see how much we didn't belong. We didn't see that the church ladies went out to Denny's after church on Sunday, but we weren't there. We didn't see that the kids went out to Starbucks, but they didn't invite me. Suicides can be contagious. After Marilyn Monroe killed herself, for example, there was something like a 12% rise in suicides. The term suicide cluster was coined in the 1980s following a surge in young people taking their lives in Bergenfield, New Jersey. In 1987, a pair of sisters and two young men entered into a suicide pact. They got into a car and killed themselves by letting it run in a closed garage. In the four weeks that followed this highly publicized case, 35 imitators killed themselves in similar ways. This is called the Werther Effect. Named for the 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It depicts the suicide of a heartbroken young man. The book was a runaway hit, but it led directly to a rash of youth suicides, so many that Italy and Denmark banned it. It's hard to imagine today that a piece of literature printed on dead trees could have such a dramatic effect on young people. And 18th century Europe seems almost impossibly far away from the American heartland. But there are many parallels. Before their deaths, all four of the Kirksville suicide victims had relationship problems that sent them reeling. One can imagine they resembled young Werther in some ways. For example, when Werther first meets his beloved Charlotte, he's over the moon. Here's a short reading from the book by our producer, Ryan I shall see her, I say aloud, in the morning when I wake, and with all cheerfulness look towards the lovely sun. I shall see her and for the whole day then I have no further wish. Everything, everything is consumed in this one prospect. But Charlotte will soon be married to another man. Young Werther will never have her. Deluded by the innocent dream that I sat near her on the grass and held her hand and covered it in a thousand kisses, vainly I seek her in my bed. Tears force up in floods from the wellspring of my heart, and I weep inconsolably at the prospect of my dire future. Besides this 18th century German novel, many also compare the Kirksville suicides to a more recent high profile case, that of Massachusetts teenager Conrad Roy, who killed himself in 2014. His girlfriend, Michelle Carter, pressured him to go through with it. I thought you wanted to do this, one of her texts said. Read, the time is right and you're ready. You just need to do it. You can't keep living this way. People who commit suicide don't think this much, they just do it. Michelle Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death. Some say Brandon Grossheim should be similarly charged that he too was responsible when it came to the deaths of these Kirksville students. But the cases are different. For one thing, Michelle Carter repeatedly urged her boyfriend to kill himself. The prosecution had the texts showing this with Brandon Grosseim. However, there's no direct evidence that we're aware of that he told anyone to end their lives. Nor could Grossheim be credibly compared to Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan euthanasia proponent. Nicknamed Dr. Death, he assisted over 100 suicides and in 1999 was convicted of second degree homicide. Kevorkian helped people with terminal illnesses end their lives. Grossheim, on the other hand, dealt with young people who were depressed. Though Brandon was a psychology major, he certainly didn't have expertise in this area. Here's suicide prevention trainer Rita Lechevsky's thoughts on Brandon. I believe that he just believed he was grander and more helpful than any type of degree would give him. After the four suicides, no one could ignore Brandon's ties to these tragedies any longer. The police began investigating him more seriously, and they got Brandon to speak with a professional counselor. It was his fourth consecutive friend who had killed himself, he told the counselor, according to a police report. He also said that he had made sure to let all of his friends know that he was there for them and gave them advice and step by step directions on how to deal with things like depression. But he knew all along they would, quote, do their own free will. This statement gets to the heart of the issue. What does that mean, do their own free will? Was he telling them that if they killed themselves, he would understand? It's possible he was even more explicit. We talked to a former friend of Grosseim's named Tristan Weiser. She says Brandon sent text messages to the second suicide victim, Jake Hughes, about how to end it. I remember he had texted Jake things about how to do it and how to end it if he really wanted to put himself out of it. I remember that being said. How to tie it? I believe it was how to tie it. How to tie a knot. That would need to be done. Brandon Grosseim denies ever having encouraged anyone to kill themselves or aiding them in doing so. Further, Tristan's claim that Brandon sent Jake text messages about how to kill himself or how to tie a noose has not been verified. Tristan says she didn't actually see these messages herself, but heard about them from an acquaintance who had access to Jake's phone. She declines to name the acquaintance. One thing seems clear. At the very least, Brandon did not try very hard to dissuade these impressionable young men from taking their lives. The question then becomes, when does supporting a friend in their time of need turn into giving them permission to end it all? Protect your pet with insurance from Pets Best Plans start from less than a dollar a day. 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When I visited the town with our producer Ryan Krull, we watched the high school homecoming parade on the main drag. We asked people what they liked about living there. It's got a small town atmosphere. My kids could be in anything they wanted to be in. People are nice. Just a great little place to grow up for a family to grow up in. Before the suicides, Truman State was Kirksville's biggest employer and most locals acknowledge its importance. Though there's a bit of the town versus gown dynamic that is a culture clash between the fancy schmancy college kids and the blue collar locals who are apparently known as kirkatoids. That's what Truman kids call them or kirkatoids. Is that like a pejorative? That's what we called them when I went to Truman in the 90s as Kirkatoids. I don't get it. I don't either. That's what we call it now. In the dictionary you have shit cricker, which is a real term. And it actually is born and raised out of Kirksville. It's actually in the dictionary A shit cricker. Cricker. C R I, C, K E R. Oh, like the creek. Like the crick. Uh huh. But it's in the. It is in the dictionary. Okay. Shit cricker is born and raised here. All right. Kirksville's other claim to fame is as the birthplace of osteopathy, a type of medicine that focuses on healing ailments by massaging and manipulating muscles and joints. In fact, Brandon's old fraternity house, Alpha Kappa Lambda, is located on South Osteopathy Avenue. But while Truman State is picturesque, I would not describe Kirksville as a cute college town along the lines of Madison, Wisconsin, or Lawrence, Kansas. On the Truman State campus, I asked some students where I should go eat. There's plenty of good restaurants in town, too. What's up? I'm vegan. Is there anything, anywhere I can eat? Great question. I don't know. There's no, like, healthy restaurants here. We've realized, like, if you want, like, something healthy, like, it's just not here. Every time my parents come to visit, they're like, there's not like. I don't know, it's all kind of gross. Yeah, I'm getting that impression already. Alex Mullins, the first suicide victim, grew up in North Kansas City. City. His mother described him as a city boy. Kirksville just wasn't a great fit. During Alex's second year at Truman State, his grades started slipping and he was put on academic probation at the Alpha Kappa Lambda house. Meanwhile, he grew tired of all the debauchery. Sure, he loved to party as much as the next guy, but wasn't the fraternity supposed to serve a higher purpose? Whatever happened to community service? A close friend of Alex Mullins from high school was named Tommy Lona. He also attended Truman, but didn't join akl. He said that not long before Alex killed himself, the fraternity members bullied him on this specific day over, you know, a game of dice or basically like beer pong type of frat game. They chuck the dice in the air. But that day just stuck with me because it was a day. Alex obviously was off. He didn't seem right. He was very irritable and, like, his fraternity members were just, like, disparaging, calling him a P word, a B word. And just this is the typical kind of like, man on man bullying. That was the same day I watched him, like, just start dropping his wallet and keys. And he walked into the woods and, like, grabbed a piece of sharp metal and was trying to, like, slice his arm and his neck. I just was begging him not to do this. Like, pleading with him, like, well, you have friends that love you, dude. Like, please move out of here. This is the type of way that they're making you feel overall. I mean, you just got to get away from it. But Alex didn't dislike everyone at the fraternity. One person he got along with well was Brandon Grossheim. They got to know each other because Alex was the fraternity house manager, the guy responsible for general maintenance and mopping up the spilled beer. Alex's tenure as house manager was winding down, so Brandon was taking over. Alex trained him in and they hit it off. For one thing, Brandon agreed with him about the fraternity's commitment to public service. In their free time, he and Brandon would smoke weed together, and they'd also play first person shooter games. After his sophomore year, Alex lived part of the summer in the Alpha Kappa Lambda house. I asked his fraternity brother, Connor Templeton, about that time, most people would go home. There'd maybe be five or six of us still living in the fraternity house. Like for instance, me and Alex Mullins, we both worked all the summers. We'd hang out outside, play games. I had a blow up pool I put in our parking lot and we'd hang out in that. So as the new school year drew closer, however, Alex spiraled. His relationship with a girl he'd been seeing withered. In fact, the night before his death, she broke up with him. Gobsmacked. He reportedly sent a message to some of his fraternity brothers. If anyone has drugs in Kirksville, that is here, please hit me up. I don't care the price. Not having a good night Just need to forget. Early the next afternoon, Kirksville police were urgently dispatched to the Alpha Kappa Lambda house. According to a police report, a fraternity member had been trying to reach Alex, but he wasn't answering his phone and his door was locked to try to check on him. Brandon Grosseim went outside and looked in Alex's window. Peering through a small opening in the blinds, he saw Alex hanging from his wardrobe. When the police arrived, Brandon entered Alex's room through through the window. He tried to pick Alex up, apparently to see if he could still be saved, but the body was stiff. He then unlocked Alex's door to let the officers in. News of the death quickly spread. Alex Mullin's friends and family were devastated. Here's his friend Tommy Lona. It was honestly the most terrible day ever. I felt completely weak and useless. But their sadness was punctuated by questions. Things didn't seem to add up. Take Brandon Grosseim's account, for example. He apparently claimed he waited for police to arrive before climbing through the window to see if he could see save Alex Mullins. But if he thought there was a chance Alex might still be alive, why would he wait? Alex's mother, meanwhile, says she didn't receive word of her son's death until long after the fact. It's our belief that Alex died around 1:30am so almost 12 hours later. I don't know if anybody found him until the morning. I don't know. That's the thing. There's lots of things that don't make sense. But when she arrived to the fraternity house, his room seemed suspiciously tidy. Had someone removed her son's drug paraphernalia? Also, he seemed to be missing cash. Had Brandon or others actually gone into Alex's room before the police arrived and then lied about it? 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Take their skincare quiz and find your routine@kpsessentials.com and if you're gifting, spend $200 and get a free travel size. Renew Eternal Youth. It's a dollar ninety bo. In the meantime, the grieving process for Alex Mullins death began. One person who took his death extremely hard was his close friend from the fraternity, Jake Hughes. Jake was a 19 year old psychology major described by his friends as artsy and musical. He got a tattoo on his chest in memory of Alex Mullins. Sadly, this was not the first time Jake had seen someone die from suicide. In fact, he had experienced a shocking amount of turmoil for someone so young. Here's a police interview with Alpha Kappa Lambda member Logan Hunt talking about Jake Hughes who was the second suicide victim. He said stories on stories about like previous relationships gone wrong and like over Skype. Like his ex girlfriend had died of a heroin overdose like in front of his eyes like oversthag. According to police reports, Jake had substance abuse issues, depression and had even previously attempted suicide. Still, no one was prepared when just 20 days after Alex Mullins death, Jake took his own life. It happened during a raging party at the AKL house. Jake had a fight with his girlfriend that night and was saying some very dark things. Brandon Grossheim tried to make him feel better and offered to give Jake's girlfriend a ride home. And so Jake gave him the keys to his car. When Brandon returned, he went to check on Jake, but his door was locked as Brandon told police. And then I proceeded, I remembered I had his keys because he gave me his car key. His car keys. Cause you're, yeah, such a. Ran back, back to my room. I grabbed his car keys, I unlocked his door. That's why I found him hanging there. Okay. I lifted him up. I, I, I told, I yelled out and told somebody to call 91 1. Okay. Now. And then I kept going for help. It was uncanny. Jake hung himself the exact same way Alex did, from a wardrobe with a belt. And Brandon Grosse had discovered them both. Seeing that Jake had blood on his face and his chest, Brandon sprung into action. He attempted cpr. I laid him down and proceeded. I tilted his head back and proceeded to give him mouth to mouth and cpr. Okay. Until you guys arrived. Okay. A close friend of the deceased and fellow fraternity brother arrived at the scene. Here's Logan Hunt talking to officers that night. Brandon was seen up against the wardrobe, almost like caressing Jake, like, down from the wardrobe. And all I could really process at this moment was that, like, Jake was like, pale. He was very pale, right? And he had, like, lacerations and marks, like around his neck. At this point, we had him on his back and we were performing CPR on him. And Brandon was like, Brandon's very preparedness situations, he, like, takes initiative to, like, perform proper cpr. Alpha Kappa Lambda member Connor Templeton watched as it happened. He was still breathing, you know, the party. And a lot of most people didn't know what was going on. Like I said, there's a party downstairs. He was still breathing. And if I remember correctly, I feel like he was at least moving. His eyes are still breathing up until the paramedics and whatnot got there. And he either died right there or on the way to the hospital. I believe police investigators who arrived wore body cameras. It's chilling now, listening to them interview Brandon Grosseim on the scene. That's because Brandon is incredibly calm. He's not breaking down like others around him. When was the last time you talked to him till you 30 and then you keyed into the door? Okay, Gotcha. The time he keyed into the door. 2:06. He says he's incredibly precise, answering the investigators questions before they can finish asking them. Brandon often sounds like he should be leading the investigation himself. He shoots down the police's dumb idea that this might have been autoerotic asphyxiation. For example. What I'm asking is the belter on the neck, is that this a type of asphyxiation? Like, anything that you know of, Like, a type of, like, asphyxiation, like, to make yourself pass out or anything like that? I know what you're talking about. I don't. Not that, no. Do you know of anyone who does it? That's what I'm asking. Yeah. No, no, no. And then he gets annoyed when they can't understand his explanation of how Jake tied the noose. How was the belt tied? So he said it was a slip knot. I'm sorry. Okay. I didn't. Yeah. So it wasn't through the metal loops. No, it was here. I don't have my belt on me, otherwise. I'll show you. But it's. It's literally like these metal bars. There's two metal bars, 2D. The 2D bars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he. He slipped the belt fully through there, and then. So you had the belt sliding up and down, and that's what he put his neck through, and he had the other end tied to the wardrobe. Okay. So it wasn't actually latched anywhere. Like, it would have just, like, slipped right off of it. Yes. What have you got? Should they have a belt? You're okay. Just grab it the best way you can. That's what I'm trying to do. I mean, he took the end that doesn't have the 2D bars, whatever you want to call them, and he tied that. All right, so let's slow things down again and do a quick recap with our producer, Ryan Kroll. Hey, Ben. Yeah. There is a lot going on here, for sure. Let's talk about the police and how much they were really investigating Brandon Grosseim at this point. Yeah. So Grosseim was, you know, definitely on the police's radar, but I don't think they were really investigating him that closely. They were very slow to sort of put all the pieces together. I think, you know, overall, they mostly just felt sorry for Brandon. You know, he'd lost his friends, his close friends, his frat brothers. And also Brandon, he's sort of at the scene of a lot of these deaths. So he was someone that the police really needed to talk to and get information from. But it Sounds like even if the police weren't hassling him, that the fraternity brothers, a lot of them anyway, were suspicious of him. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. Do you remember how in the case of the death of Alex Mullins, some of the fraternity brothers accused Brandon of stealing drug paraphernalia after he died? Yeah, yeah. So those same allegations or similar allegations were levied at Brandon in the wake of the death of Jake Hughes. Except this time they are even more serious because some of his fraternity brothers say that Jake Hughes actually sold drugs. Oh, wow. Yeah. And then after his death, then some frat brothers thought that Brandon may have raided Jake safe. Okay, right. So. And then what about the tattoos that Brandon was getting? Yeah, yeah. Some people found that strange as well, that Brandon would get these tattoos as an homage to his deceased fraternity brothers. Right, okay. In fact, we talked to their fellow Alpha Kappa Lambda brother, Connor Templeton about Brandon allegedly raiding Jake's safe and about the tattoos he got. Brandon got a tattoo of the Death Star on his chest and he got the number seven in the middle of the Death Star. The Death Star was as a memorial to Jake, who was a Star wars fan. The number seven held special significance for Alex Mullins. I do remember that tattoo from Brandon very vividly. Yeah, it just kind of. It almost seemed like a trophy to me in a way. What do you mean exactly? I would. I mean, if I'm going down the rabbit hole and if, say, he did have a hand in any of this and that was, you know, the first one's. Mullen says somehow whether he did it or coaxed him into it or has something to do with Jake, I mean, it's almost like he was proud of it, you know, and just a lot of the things after some of the deaths just seemed. Seemed to be used as trophies Here. Connor is referring in part to Jake's clothes, which Brandon began wearing after Jake's death. They included a popsicle print shirt, which was one of Jake's favorites, a pair of shoes, and some of Jake's silver and gold chains. Let's give Brandon the benefit of the doubt. He maybe believed that this was a way to remember his deceased friend, to stay close to him. And it's worth noting that when Jake's parents arrived at the fraternity after he died, they took away his. His cat, his tv, his computer, but they purposefully left all of his clothes to the fraternity. Whatever the case, following the suicides of his fraternity brothers Alex Mullins and Jake Hughes, Brandon Grossheim fell into a deep depression. He was kicked out of the fraternity, left Truman State and moved off campus with a bunch of cats. His drinking intensified and he also began posting videos on Facebook of him reading classic Grimm's Fairy Tales. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Brandon Grossein. I think I'm going to try to make a series out of this, but I'm going to just read some of my favorite fairy tales, specifically Grimm's Fairy Tales. On this she began to cry and cried louder and louder and could not be comforted. What ails thee, king's daughter, thou weepest set even a stone would show pity. So the moral of the story is, I guess from basically the princess of the Frog, is that if you throw a frog against the wall violently whenever it's talking to you, it'll transform. And that's how you get your golden prince. Following Jake's death, Brandon also began dating Casey, Jake's girlfriend, at the time of his suicide. According to a police report, quote, they started seeing each other right after Jake's death. That's not the only suicide victim's girlfriend Brandon appears to have been involved with. In fact, Brandon was involved with a lot of women during this time, even when in the midst of all this death. And at least one of these women accused him of psychological manipulation, almost like he was grooming her for suicide herself. That's next time on the Peacemaker. The Peacemaker is a production of Cool Fire Studios and iHeart Podcasts. It's hosted by me, Ben Westoff and Ryan Krul. Our executive producers are Jeff Keane, David Johnson and Steve Lubert. Music and audio engineering by Brent Johnson. Executive producers for iHeart podcasts are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Etor. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, there are resources available to you. Please call the suicide and crisis Lifeline 988. Amazon Five Star Theater presents real customer reviews performed by Eva Longoria. Tonight's review, sports briefs. Oh, boy. Where do I even start with these performance mesh boxer briefs. These boxer briefs are like a magician's trick. You know, the one where you go, where did that rabbit come from? So if you're looking for underwear that not only performs well but also gives your package the attention it deserves, then look no further. Five stars. Nickalicious Shop. The perfect gift this holiday season on Amazon. Janice Torres here and I'm Austin Hankwitz. We host the podcast Mind the Small Business Success Stories, produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Intuit QuickBooks. We're back for season four to talk to some incredible small business owners. The big thing about working at tech is that it's ever evolving, ever changing. Everyone's a rookie. That's how fast the industry is changing. So what I'm really excited about is to be part of that change. So listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know what a girl's best friend is not diamonds. Her lawyers. From executive producer Ryan Murphy comes a fiery new legal drama. It's our own boutique women representing women you can't afford to miss. Make it rig showtime, ladies. Stand up straight and breeze into that room like a storm no one saw coming. Hulu Original Series All's Fair now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. Black Friday is here and Pandora Jewelry is offering up to 40% off storewide and site wide. Now through December 2nd, Explore Jewelry designed to last beyond the season, from classic charms to modern rings, bracelets, earrings and more. Whether you're holiday shopping or treating yourself, now's the perfect time to find something Special. Shop@pandora.net or your local Pandora store. Exclusions apply. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.