When three female College of William and Mary students discovered similar disquieting patterns in their behavior after having partied the previous night, they decided to go the Williamsburg police.
The Williamsburg city police investigation into the suspected drugged drinks of the three students continues with little evidence.
“That’s the problem, why there are no details given because there’s no specific location that we can pinpoint … we know it happened in the course of one evening, but the when and where and even who are all elusive because, as you know, the girls were going from place to place, from residences to bars,” Police Major Greg Riley said.
The students did not come into the police office until approximately 24 hours after the suspected drugging occurred, making it more difficult to determine the validity of their allegations.
“Although we can speculate this is what happened, we have no evidence,” Senior Police Officer and investigator of the case Todd Iverson said. “We have no drug tests showing that anything was ingested.”
However, the girls found enough cause to alert the police.
“They went home and slept, but it wasn’t until later that evening that the girls all discovered they had the same symptoms, per se,” Iverson said.
Iverson noted that the girls’ full intention of going to the police was not to produce a conviction.
“I contacted Chief Challis, and he advised me he did have the report, I told him that the young ladies who had spoken to me were more interested in having a warning be put out to the student body, not necessarily don’t get here, don’t go there, but just be aware that this is something that could happen,” Iverson said.
Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler ’88, Ph.D ’06 sent out a campus-wide email Friday warning about the possible dangers of partying.
“I did want to take the opportunity to alert students to this particular danger,” Ambler said. “There is always a risk that someone either known or unknown to you could attempt to tamper with your drink.”
Ambler projected the date of the suspected drugging based on when William and Mary Police received the Williamsburg police report. All cases involving College students are automatically forwarded to the William and Mary Police.
“I would say this occurred several weekends ago,” Ambler said.
The police were not sure if the College Office of Student Affairs would continue to be updated on any developments in the investigation, if there were any.
“What we knew then is what we know now,” Riley said. “There is really no update to be made.”
The police did confirm that the students are in healthy condition and that the off-campus location where the students may have been drugged is in no way affiliated with the College.