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The family of a Freshman in college in Texas has filed a wrongful death lawsuit based on allegations that hazing in the fraternity pushed him into a mental health crisis that led to him taking his own life.
Sawyer Updike, an 18-year-old from Pearland, accepted an offer to pledge the Sigma Chi fraternity through the University of Texas at Austin’s Alpha Nu Chapter in August 2023. accordingly FOX 7.
Throughout his time as a member of the chapter’s pledge class, Updike was reportedly subjected to months of “horrific harassment” that ultimately drove him to suicide, the lawsuit says.
“This was just an outstanding young man,” Ted Lyon, an attorney representing Updike’s family, told Fox News Digital. “He scored 1,410 on the SATs. He was a straight-A student in high school.”
Sawyer Updike’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging their son died by suicide because of “terrible harassment” while joining the Sigma Chi fraternity at the University of Texas at Austin in January 2024. (Ted B. Lyon & Associates, PC)
The 6-foot-2 freshman had just joined the school’s skeet shooting team and, according to Lyon, had “the whole world in front of him.”
The alleged hazing took place Alpha Nu fraternity house in AustinLyon said.
“The culture that leverages this type of, I call it, tainted activity is not the type of culture that a major university should tolerate,” Lyon told Fox News Digital.
According to Ted Lyon, an attorney representing Updike’s family, Sawyer Updike previously played high school football and had just made the skeet shooting team at the University of Texas at Austin when he died by suicide in January 2024. (Ted B. Lyon & Associates, PC)
According to the lawsuit, Updike was allegedly subjected to various methods of brutal harassment by members of the fraternity. The act reportedly involved sticking a large fishing hook through Updike’s leg, piercing his hip with a staple gun, and forcing him to do so out of fear of punishment taking illegal substanceslike cocaine, according to FOX 7.
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that members of the fraternity forced Updike to consume dangerous amounts of alcohol, repeatedly burned him with lit cigarettes, and physically whipped and beat the freshman, the outlet reported.
“We have a picture of the child that she stapled before he did it,” Bill Johnston, an attorney representing the family, told FOX 7. “I mean, they were kind of sick again, they were proud of it. They were proud enough to take it in.”
Photo evidence from the attorney representing Sawyer Updike’s family shows the 18-year-old surrounded by beer bottles at the University of Texas at Austin. (Ted B. Lyon & Associates, PC)
The psychological damage According to Lyon, Updike’s parents noticed the alleged harassment when he returned home for vacation in 2023.
“When he came home for Christmas, his parents knew something was wrong,” Lyon told Fox News Digital. “He weighed 192 pounds and looked emaciated, but they didn’t really know what it was. They didn’t know he was being bullied and abused on a regular basis.”
The lawsuit reportedly states that Updike’s mental state had already deteriorated when he was supplied with cocaine and psilocybin mushrooms on January 16, 2024, the first day of the second semester of Updike’s freshman year, according to FOX 7.
STUDENTS IN CRITICAL CONDITION: REPORT
A photo evidence provided by Sawyer Updike’s family attorney shows injuries allegedly caused by hazing by the Sigma Chi fraternity at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2023. (Ted B. Lyon & Associates, PC)
Shortly after he was allegedly given drugs, Updike drove to a local gas station parking lot and took his own life.
“He committed suicide in January 2024 and of course the parents wondered why,” Johnston said. “The mother was able to access his phone, speak to a number of people and learn that he had been subjected to extreme harassment.”
Although it does not appear that Updike personally reported the instances of alleged harassment, at least one complaint regarding the fraternity was filed at UT this fall semester, FOX 7 reported.
After Updike’s death, the university decided to close the Sigma Chi chapter, which had already been postponed due to a separate review alleged hazing incident from last year, according to FOX 7. Harassment is illegal under Texas law and prohibited by university policy.
“Frankly, there is something wrong with someone who thinks this is a rite of passage that can be applied to another young person,” Johnston said, FOX 7 reported.
The wrongful death lawsuit names Sigma Chi International Fraternity as the Alpha Nu Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity University of Texas at Austin, Alpha Nu House Corporation and five fraternity members, according to FOX 7.
“UT Austin is committed to providing a safe educational environment for all and does not tolerate harassment by any group or individual affiliated with the university,” the University of Texas at Austin said in a statement to FOX 7. “All such allegations receive the utmost attention and will be thoroughly investigated.”
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The National Sigma Chi Chapter and UT Austin did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
“I live with the weight of his absence every day,” Sawyer’s mother, Sheryl Roberts-Updike, said in a news release, according to FOX 7. “No parent should ever lose a child, especially not because of bullying disguised as ‘brotherhood.’ What happened to Sawyer was cruel, senseless and avoidable. It is unbearable to know that such a promising young man had to go through something so dangerous in the name of belonging.”
