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Father says son appeared beaten..


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This story is crazy...

Father says son appeared beaten

Rejects theory that fall caused NU student's death

By John McElhenny, Globe Correspondent, 3/22/2004

LEXINGTON -- The father of a Northeastern University student whose death remains a mystery said yesterday that his son's body was so badly bruised that he must have been badly beaten before he died.

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Warren W. Dedrick, who saw his son's body on Saturday, said Walter E. Dedrick's shoulder, hands, and legs were bruised, and both of his knees were swollen. The left side of his son's face was marred by a large bruise that looked like it came from a baseball bat, Warren W. Dedrick said.

He rejected the possibility that his 22-year-old son's death last Wednesday could have been caused by a fall during a night of drinking two days before he died, as investigators suggested to him on Saturday.

"They say there's an indication that he fell. They're wrong," said Warren Dedrick yesterday, adding that he thinks his son was beaten.

Authorities do not yet know how Walter Dedrick died. The Northeastern senior spent last Monday night drinking with friends, then awoke Tuesday with bruises and torn clothing. He told his roommate he was unable to recall what happened the night before, and spent the day in his Hemenway Street apartment nursing a headache.

The next day, Dedrick's roommate found him dead. With little clue as to what caused his injuries, Boston police appealed to the public for help.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney's office said autopsy results, including toxicology tests, might not be completed for four weeks.

"The investigation into how Mr. Dedrick sustained his injuries remains very active," said the spokesman, David Procopio. "It is a death investigation, as opposed to a homicide investigation."

Dedrick, a business administration major who loved to sing and play guitar, was scheduled to graduate in May. He had already landed a sales and marketing job with MEDCLR, his father's medical debt purchasing company, and planned to start work there after graduation.

Instead, his ashes will be spread upon the ocean he loved near his father's home in Key West, Fla.

Yesterday, 150 people crammed into the Douglass Funeral Home in Lexington for his funeral service. Before the service, dozens of Northeastern students in dark suits and black dresses embraced and cried. Some sat on the curb with their heads bowed. Others stood in silence, their hands jammed into coat pockets.

Off to one side, Warren Dedrick, 53, smoked a cigarette, his hand trembling and his eyes filling with tears and laughter as he remembered his only son. He said he planned to hire a private medical examiner to determine how his son died.

Inside the funeral home, Walter Dedrick's casket was closed, partly because his father had asked that no makeup be applied that might interfere with a private medical examiner's investigation. Warren Dedrick said Boston police were doing a fine job investigating the case, but he wanted to make sure everything possible was done to figure out how his son had died.

"It's just an extra set of eyes," he said. "I just feel I couldn't sleep if I didn't."

Warren Dedrick said he took photos of his son's body to document the extent of his injuries.

Walter Dedrick was arrested by campus police in 2000 for allegedly hitting a female residential assistant while he was drunk, according to a Northeastern campus police log. Warren Dedrick said he cut off financial support for his son, who turned things around by working two low-paying jobs and paying more attention to his studies.

Since then, Walter Dedrick had been an honor-roll student, his father said.

Last Tuesday, after Walter Dedrick awoke, he stayed in his apartment nursing his headache and speaking to his roommate on several occasions, his father has said. Around 10:30 p.m., the roommate left Dedrick sleeping on a couch. The next day, the roommate found him not breathing and called 911. Emergency personnel tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

At the funeral service yesterday, friends and family remembered Walter Dedrick as a kind-spirited, fun-loving, poker-playing, guitar-strumming young man who lived a full lifetime in his 22 years. Friends called him "Wally" after "WallyWorld," the amusement park in the Chevy Chase movie "Vacation."

Walter's sister Yvonne, 23, said her brother was so charming that men couldn't help but like him and women couldn't help but fall in love with him. "Walter's idea of paradise was sitting on a beach with a Heineken in his hand listening to O.A.R.," his favorite band, Yvonne wrote in a statement that was read aloud.

The most poignant words came from Walter Dedrick himself. Dedrick's friend Dorothy Castiglioni, 22, said she found in a folder in his room a song he had written when he was 16 about two lovers torn apart by death. "Wrap your arms around me before I die. Leaving you is all that can make me cry," Dedrick wrote. "I love you more than you will ever know. We've been torn now i've got to go.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest cnchewy1014

I was searching for stories about my cousin when I came across your message board posting of an article written about him before the police department completed their investigation. I would just like to say that you are all retards for even believing anything written in the media anyway, and how dare you speak ill of the dead. Our family is grieving the loss of a son, brother, nephew, and cousin that meant more than the world to us. How dare you pass judgement on someone that has just lost his life from reading one article containing false information. If you want to talk shit about someone that just died, it might not be a good idea to post it on the Internet. I hope you all go to Hell.

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Originally posted by cnchewy1014

I was searching for stories about my cousin when I came across your message board posting of an article written about him before the police department completed their investigation. I would just like to say that you are all retards for even believing anything written in the media anyway, and how dare you speak ill of the dead. Our family is grieving the loss of a son, brother, nephew, and cousin that meant more than the world to us. How dare you pass judgement on someone that has just lost his life from reading one article containing false information. If you want to talk shit about someone that just died, it might not be a good idea to post it on the Internet. I hope you all go to Hell.

Who said anything negative?

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Originally posted by cnchewy1014

I was searching for stories about my cousin when I came across your message board posting of an article written about him before the police department completed their investigation. I would just like to say that you are all retards for even believing anything written in the media anyway, and how dare you speak ill of the dead. Our family is grieving the loss of a son, brother, nephew, and cousin that meant more than the world to us. How dare you pass judgement on someone that has just lost his life from reading one article containing false information. If you want to talk shit about someone that just died, it might not be a good idea to post it on the Internet. I hope you all go to Hell.

Can of worms.... opened.

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This is what happens when a bunch of dumb rich kids live in a ghetto area.....boston's college kids are notorious for trying to start shit and can't back it up...the kid probably got into a fight with some townies, or someone from the wrong part of huntington street, who took a brick to his head.............just 4 days ago...these stupid ass freshmen outside of avalon wanted to fight my friend who'se a fucking jui jutzi(however teh fuck you spell it), black belt...thank god the guy only put the kid in a choke for a couple of second and then let him go........this is Boston, but you NEVER FUCKING KNOW......this is why I don't start shit with anyone...

ANd yes, northeastern IS MOSTLY a bunch of dumb rich kids........

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Originally posted by cnchewy1014

I was searching for stories about my cousin when I came across your message board posting of an article written about him before the police department completed their investigation. I would just like to say that you are all retards for even believing anything written in the media anyway, and how dare you speak ill of the dead. Our family is grieving the loss of a son, brother, nephew, and cousin that meant more than the world to us. How dare you pass judgement on someone that has just lost his life from reading one article containing false information. If you want to talk shit about someone that just died, it might not be a good idea to post it on the Internet. I hope you all go to Hell.

You got a pic honey?

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