Never Solved, a College Dorm Fire Has Become One Man's Obsession

Timmy McGrath

Current Event 22

Bronxville School

April 18th, 2017

Kleinfield, N. R. “Never Solved, a College Dorm Fire Has Become One Man's Obsession.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/nyregion/never-solved-a-college-dorm-fire-has-become-one-mans-obsession.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%2BScience&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection.

In 1967 a fire at Cornell University killed 9 people. No one was ever charged for the crime but now with new forensic evidence an amteur investigator thinks he knows who set the fire. The students in the dorm woke up and thought they smelled a barbecue but to their surprise they were right in the middle of a fire. The smoke made it nearly impossible for the students to escape but that didn’t stop them from trying many scrambling to escape one even hobbling on crutches. Students detaches the window screens in order to crawl out of the windows. As students gathered at the nearby sorority the mood darkened as they learned the truth about what had happened. Eight Students had died and one teacher the heroic Mr. Finch. Many students were forced to reschedule their remaining days and many were still scared that the killer was targeting them but they could never figure out exactly who the killer was.

` But in 2013 William Fogle decided to investigate it into more depth. The Phud program he conceived didn’t work as planned though. Continuing his research with not much results was very difficult for him but he trudged along. He found a breakthrough when someone told him about a student who had come under suspicion for odd behavior. But the student couldn’t be found. Eventually he found a teanager who had been killed in New mexico. His theory was that the student had killed him and taken the identity. He soon found the identity of the person he was looking for through many different means. Although he can’t prove that this man did it he is almost positive that he did.

I found this article to be very interesting because it shows you that how investigating something as simple as a fire can lead to new and more mysteries and if you don’t give up you can find the killer and maybe even find more crimes that had been committed.