June 20, 2003

Mr. Larry Wallace, Director

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation

901 R.S. Gass Blvd.

Nashville, TN 37216

Dear Mr. Wallace:

In the early morning hours of March 21^st we got the call that every parent dreads, our son Robbie, a 22 year old East Tennessee State University student, had been found dead outside his campus apartment. We trusted ETSU, like any parent would, to properly respond to something of this magnitude, but our trust was violated. Now we need your help to make things right, and to bring about justice for our son, and our family.

Based on uncorroborated witness statements the ETSU Department of Public Safety first jumped to the conclusion that Robbie had committed suicide, then that he had fallen to his death from a second story overhang on the outside of his apartment building while under the influence of drugs. We know our son, he didn't commit suicide, and no evidence of suicide such as a note has ever been found. A toxicology test run by Aegis Analytical Laboratories in Nashville confirmed that there were "no drugs detected" in Robbie's system the night of his death.

ETSU closed their investigation in April unable to conclusively determine a cause for Robbie's death, and the Certificate of Death indicates only that the manner of death could "not be determined." While ETSU "concluded that there was no evidence of foul-play," he was found eight and a half feet from the building with his head facing the building. We believe he may have been pushed off and been the victim of a possible murder. They found no conclusive evidence that supported that his death was either a suicide or accident.

Critical evidence and clues may have been missed by ETSU given their assumptions and response to Robbie's death. The scene, which should have been treated as a crime scene, was cleared within just a few hours. ETSU sent the Johnson City Police Department, which would have secured the scene, away. Robbie's room and the car he was driving were never secured. The apartment complex's video surveillance tapes were overwritten with out ever being reviewed. Not all possible witnesses were interviewed, including students who were present that night. And the scene was not finger printed until days later, after any evidence might have been cleared away.

We desperately need the TBI's help to re-interview some of the witnesses, and some for the first time, and to reconstruct what happened that night. We realize it may be too late for some things to be done, but if any answers can be found the additional expertise and resources of the TBI can find them. Please do whatever is necessary to involve the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in this case. If it were your child would you accept any less?

Sincerely,

Jim Nottingham Mary Nottingham