Mom Settles with Fraternity Over Truman State ‘Suicide Cluster’ Claims

Melissa Bottorff-Arey’s son suffered the first death in a series at the Missouri university that gained national media attention

Oct 31, 2023 at 7:51 am

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Kirksville PD

Photo of AKL house taken by police investigating the death of Alex Mullins.

The mother of a student at Missouri’s Truman State University who was the first to take his own life as part of a mysterious suicide cluster at the school has settled with the fraternity where he and two of his frat brothers died.

The hearing on Monday morning took place over video call in front of Adair County Circuit Court Judge Corey Moon, bringing to an end a portion of the lawsuit that made national news when it was filed in August 2019.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Melissa Bottorff-Arey, mother of Alex Mullins, as well as Suzanne and Michael Thomas, parents of Joshua Thomas, and it sought to hold the university, the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity and fraternity member Brandon Grossheim liable for the deaths of the two young men, who were both members of the fraternity.

Bottorff-Arey’s settlement with the fraternity, which Judge Moon has now given his approval to, was for an undisclosed sum. The Thomases’ lawsuit against the fraternity remains pending.

In the wake of the lawsuit's filing, Grossheim found himself at the center of nationwide media interest. The suit accused him of aiding and encouraging Mullins and Thomas to take their own lives by giving them "advice on how to commit suicide.” It also accused him of being involved in three other deaths of young adults.

Those five deaths happened between August 2016 and August 2017.

When Mullins took his own life at the Alpha Kappa Lambda house in August 2016, Grossheim found his body, according to the lawsuit. Fraternity brother Jacob Hughes took his own life not long after, and Grossheim again was the one to find his body.

In the wake of Hughes' death, Grossheim was seen walking around wearing the deceased student's clothes and carrying his drugs and cash, according to the lawsuit. Grossheim referred to himself as the "Peacemaker."

In September 2016, when Grossheim was asked to leave the fraternity, according to an article in the New Yorker, he allegedly took LSD, took off all his clothes and delivered “a stream-of-consciousness speech about death and also the nothingness that came after.”

Grossheim then moved into an apartment complex in Kirksville. In 2017, Grossheim was likely the last person to see alive two fellow residents of that complex: Alex Vogt, who died by suicide in January 2017, and Glenna Haught, who died from alcohol poisoning in July.

In April 2017, between those two deaths at the apartment complex, Thomas took his own life at the fraternity house in a manner similar to Mullins, Hughes and Vogt. While Grossheim was not the one to find his body, Thomas' body was found next to a piece of paper with Grossheim's name and email address written on it.

No criminal charges were ever filed against Grossheim, and in June both Mullins’ and Thomas’ parents dismissed their suit against him–however they did so with the option to refile it.

And while the parents also initially sued Truman State, a judge dismissed the claim against the university.

"Melissa and her family are glad to put this part of the litigation behind them," says Javad Khazaeli, the attorney representing Bottorff-Arey and the Thomases, of the partial settlement.