Jake Stiles winning Mr. University. (John Schreiber)

Twelve months after Jacob Stiles was found dead in his fraternity house, his parents still do not have a police report of his death.

Stiles was raised in Chicago and Florida. He graduated with honors from his high school and went to the state competition for swimming. His mother remembers him as a “big guy with a very funny sense of humor.” He had a very high ACT score, which gave him his choice of colleges to attend. He decided to attend SMU on a President’s Scholarship.

Jake attended SMU because he wanted to live in another part of the country and experience a different culture. He lived in Boaz Hall his freshman year and decided to join Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

“We were not concerned when Jacob expressed his desire to be part of a fraternity,” Mrs. Stiles said.

His sister attended Washington University and was a member of a sorority; the family had only positive experiences from its Greek involvement.

The Stiles family spent Thanksgiving break with their son. During the trip home, he played golf with his dad and friends and celebrated his 20th birthday. He openly talked with his mother about the overdose of his roommate the weekend before. He was happy, healthy and had everything to live for.

Things changed drastically for the Stiles family on Dec. 2, 2006, when they received a call from Dean of Student Life Dee Siscoe telling them that their son had died. Even though many of his fraternity brothers attended his funeral, the Stiles family has never heard anything from them since then.

Professor George Henson, a Spanish professor, wrote several columns in The Daily Campus addressing the Stiles story and calling for action by SMU. He says SMU was quick to label Jake’s death an “isolated incident” and the Stiles family was expected to go away quietly without answers. He thinks the school passed up a very important learning opportunity.

After the overdose deaths of two other students, SMU has established a drug task force to examine the university’s programs focused on education, prevention, enforcement and assistance related to drug and alcohol abuse.

The Stiles family hired its own forensics doctor to review the findings of the autopsy report. According to the family, the report was misinterpreted to make the story what SMU wanted it to be. The forensics doctor said that he needed the police report to give a proper evaluation and has never heard of not being able to obtain the report. Henson says the university rushed to label the death an “isolated incident” to “control the information and establish the narrative.”

According to a report by The Dallas Morning News, the SMU Police Chief Richard Shafer has said that his officers followed every lead. When asked about the case, Shafer had no comment and said that the SMU police department “does not release police reports.” The Stiles family says the text messages on Jacob’s cell phone have clues to lead police to the person who gave their son the drugs, but nothing has been done to follow up on this information.

President of SAE Charles Slick says the fraternity has a zero tolerance policy that went into effect the spring semester of 2007.

“Our policy firmly states that no member can use, possess or encourage drug use, and if these terms are violated they will be expelled from the fraternity,” said Slick.

The policy has continued this semester and the fraternity has been strict on enforcement.

“The policy has been in place for less than a year and I am proud to say that we have had zero incidents of drug use within our fraternity,” said Slick.

Mrs. Stiles still struggles with not knowing what happened to her son. She feels betrayed by SMU and its handling of the situation. Henson worries that the behavior of students at SMU is “spiraling out of control.” He says SMU has failed to look at what caused the tragic event.

“Working to change the future means nothing if we do not examine how we got where we are,” Henson said.

“The bottom line is, we do not really know what happened to Jacob,” Mrs. Stiles said.

Since SMU is a private school, it is not required to release any information under the Freedom of Information Act. The Stiles family may never get the police report on their son’s death.