Death in the Dorms Season 1: Episode 4: Michael Deng
01:02:50 Share

Imagine what's possible when learning doesn't get in the way of life. At Capella University, our game-changing FlexPath learning format lets you set your own deadlines so you can learn at a time and pace that works for you. It's an education you can tailor to your schedule. That means you don't have to put your life on hold to pursue your professional goals. Instead, enjoy learning your way and earn your degree without missing a beat. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu.

Hey there, 2020 listeners. This is Deborah Roberts. This week, we're bringing you episode four of Death in the Dorms from ABC News Studios. This one's about Michael Dang, a first-year student at Baruch College who took a weekend trip to the Poconos with his classmates but never made it home. Let's listen.

Every student at Baruch was notified by email about the death of their schoolmate. Michael Dang was just another Baruch student, just like me and just like all my friends. I would just see him around the hallways and he would have like a big goofy grin on his face. It's like I never would have imagined that he would be gone. The incident happened in December during a retreat in the Poconos. Law enforcement was dispatched to a hospital. His prognosis was not good.

We had to figure out whether he got hurt through an accident or somebody inflicted an injury to this kid. A few things weren't really adding up for me. This was an active cover-up. They're not hardened criminals. These young men are 19-year-old college students. I could tell they were lying. I know you know what happened to him. I know you were there.

It's gonna hurt this time.

Police are investigating the death of a freshman from New York's Baruch College. It is tragic beyond words. This prosecutor is trying to send a real message here. It's third degree murder. The case impacting the whole state of Pennsylvania. A criminal indictment. We're going to end this kind of behavior on colleges across the country. It's also important to advocate for our Asian American community. If we all keep silent, this could happen again. Enough is enough.

My name is Douglas Fehrberg. I'm a trial attorney that specializes in representing young people who've been hurt and killed in schools. After Michael Dang's death, we got contacted by the Dang family. There had been criminal proceedings that were instituted as a result of Michael's death. The family wanted guidance on how those proceedings would be handled, and we assisted them in that. There are differences in every circumstance involving a family's trauma.

But at a certain point in time, their ability or desire to talk openly to the public about the death of their son was spent. I feel it's important to talk about this because as an Asian American professional, I believe it's important to advocate for my own people.

It's important for people to know that what happened to Michael then should not happen again. I remember when I met Michael's family in their neighborhood after Michael passed. Their house was much like a shrine to family.

Michael's fingerprints were all over it, his cards home to his parents telling him how much he loved them were there. His trophies were on the mantelpiece. His bedroom was never changed from the moment he passed. Michael then was this only child in this first-generation immigrant family coming from China. He grew up in Flushing, Queens.

Flushing is a typical new Chinatown. You can find all the Chinese stores, restaurants, the streets you feel like in China. In the typical Asian culture, a boy is very important to carry your family name. As the only child, you had all the hope your parents would have to realize their American dream.

Here, parents came from China. They sacrificed a lot. This is also another typical Asian cultural value, the parental sacrifice. The parents would try to meet the children's needs. Mary stopped working and began studying certain subjects that she knew she would have to have deep knowledge of to help Michael learn.

And Michael's father helped him excel academically and ultimately get into the Bronx science. One of the elite schools, I think it's ranked number two in the entire state of New York.

The reason education is so important to Asian Americans is because education is considered the only path to success. Think about this as the first generation immigrants can barely survive. So the hope is for children to do better. Michael's parents were deeply connected to a young man that not only was academically gifted, but also gifted in athletics, played handball,

He bowled. He was an outgoing young man. He loved being on the handball courts. He was a good teammate. One of the characteristics that stood out to me most about Michael is his devotion to his parents and to being their son. How his parents' hopes were blended into that.

Because of his academic performance, Michael had many options for college. Michael didn't want to stray too far from the family. And in this circumstance at Baruch, they could experience his life as he went to college. Michael saw Baruch College as a university with very diverse cultures and opportunities. The student body comes from all walks of life.

It's a very diverse student population and that culture I think was a big draw to Michael. My name is Jessica D'Liba and I was an RA at the Baruch Residence Hall for four years.

One of the first times that I would have met Michael would have been at our beginning of the year meeting that each residence hall has with its floor. Michael was studying business and Baruch was known as a business school. We have a separate Zicklin School of Business. It's one of the major draws of the university. I'm the editor-in-chief of the ticker Baruch College's Undergraduate Student Newspaper.

- Brooke College is known mainly for its business programs, but it has three schools. In a physical aspect, Brooke is unique because we don't have a campus. So we have a few different buildings that are like within a three, four block span of each other. There's a big student life community on Brooke's campus and it's heavily populated with cultural clubs. - There was definitely a club for everyone.

We had Greek life, sports. You had your cultural groups. The options socially were there. And it was a very young, hip area. That's where everything was happening those years. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be in Manhattan.

You know, a lot of people don't know about Baruch College and people don't realize that it is right in the middle of Manhattan. We were on 24th and Lexington. Baruch is known to be an engine of social mobility. There's so many students at Baruch who just want to make a better lives for themselves. Michael Dang was one of them. Michael's death was so unique and tragic in that he was just throwing out Baruch.

to be coming in to school and get cut down before you get to live much of your life. I'm tearing up. I don't know why. Oh my God, I did not expect to be emotional, but he's just never going to get that. He's never going to get that full, broke experience. Based off the research I did for my very first article, the Michael thing story really starts in December 2013.

There was a group of students that went to the Poconos that night. Around 7:30 in the morning on December 8, 2013, law enforcement was dispatched to a hospital for a young man who had been brought in with pretty severe trauma, who was not conscious and was not responsive.

Due to the nature and the severity of the trauma, law enforcement was requested at the hospital by hospital staff. December 8th, 2013, I was the on-call detective for that weekend. I came into work and I got a phone call from one of our patrolmen. I arrived at the hospital at approximately 09:40 hours in the morning. Upon arrival in the emergency room, I observed a male, late teens, laying in an emergency room bed being treated and attempting to be stabilized by medical staff.

His prognosis was not good. They didn't know how long he was going to last. I was told that they were in contact with his mother, who was coming to the hospital from New York. At the time of my arrival, this was an investigation into an injury that occurred, but it was more of a fact-finding investigation as to who and where and what had happened.

When Detective Miller arrived at the hospital, he had no way to know that what he was investigating would ultimately turn out to be a homicide. - 19-year-old Chun Michael Dang, suffering blunt force head trauma. - Dang suffered multiple blows and impacts to his body. Multiple individuals were involved in his death.

This episode is brought to you by Lifetime. Her search for family set off a chain of devastating events. In this Lifetime original movie, based on a true story, a girl's dream to reconnect with her biological parents spirals into a chilling nightmare. And a father's unnatural fixation on his daughter leads to a disturbing secret. Watch Husband, Father, Killer, the Alyssa Pladel story, premiering tonight at 8. Part of Truly Unbelievable Movies, a ripped-from-the-headlines event only on Lifetime. Fever.

Cough. Congestion. When the symptoms keep coming, but you've got to keep going, you can rely on Mucinex Fast Max All-in-One. Just one dose of Mucinex Fast Max All-in-One relieves up to nine cold and flu symptoms, helping you get on with your day. Need cold and flu relief? Get Mucinex Fast Max All-in-One and Dunn Relief. It's comeback season. Use as directed.

Michael's mom showed up to a hospital room in the middle of nowhere, not having any idea whatsoever as to what had been done to her son. Her husband is not with her. Michael's father is in China. In speaking with Mary about her experience at the hospital, the immediate word that comes to mind is "torturous." When Detective Miller was able to view Michael, he was informed by the medical doctors

that Michael was suffering from severe brain trauma to the point that they were working hard to try to save Michael's life and get him stabilized. I observed fresh scratches to his back, his lower back, his buttocks, and observed some older injuries to his knuckles and his hands. After speaking with the medical staff, I went out and introduced myself to the three males that had brought Michael to the hospital: Sheldon Long, Charles Lai, and Danny Chen,

I learned that they were staying at a house in Tunkhannock Township and Michael got injured while outside playing a game called King of the Hill. It was obvious to Detective Miller the story that he received was not sufficient to explain what he was seeing in the room at that time. A few things weren't really adding up for me. At this time, it's beginning of December. It's cold. Ground is frozen.

This event would have had happened in the very early morning hours, somewhere between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m. And at that time, it's very uncommon for anybody to be outside due to how cold it is. In addition to asking the questions regarding Michael's injuries, Detective Miller began to ask the basic biographical information. Who are you? Where are you from? And it's at that point that Detective Miller discovers that these men were from Baruch College in New York City.

and they described this as their getaway prior to finals. Detective Miller was able to get from these three young men that there were other individuals back at the residence where Michael was injured. I spoke to Detective Sergeant Bray, who was working with me that morning, and we discussed that he would go to the residence to try and make contact with anybody there. My name is Lucas Bray. I am the crime sergeant for our detective unit at the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department.

With the initial call, I remember knowing that he was in bad shape. We had to figure out whether he got hurt through an accident or somebody inflicted an injury to this kid. I was greeted at the door by two young college-age males. I asked if I could come in and talk to them, and they invited me in. I asked them if there was anyone else in the house.

And they went downstairs and gathered up a group of what ultimately ended up being 23 people, I believe. This is a pretty large vacation rental in the Poconos. There was young men sleeping in the basement. There was young men sleeping on the first floor. And then there were young men upstairs on the second floor sleeping as well. I would ask an individual to come into the dining room area, which is where I sat down with each of them.

and then asked if they knew what happened. Many of them claimed that they were asleep when the injury occurred. I went to bed at 11 o'clock. I woke up at 7 o'clock and heard Mike got hurt, but I didn't, I don't know what happened. I didn't see anything. That was pretty much the gist of everybody's statements. So in interviewing this many people, everybody's different. So the fact that they all gave almost the same statement. In that moment, it was kind of

I don't want to say kind of, it was a huge red flag. And I realized at this point, hey, something's not right here. Of course, some of the first thoughts that went through my head were this was a party gone wrong, somebody got hurt, there was drinking or drug use. But on first appearance in this house, there wasn't any of that. It was odd to me that this large group of college-age kids were there and, you know, it didn't look like a scene from Animal House.

Additionally, Michael, while he was at the hospital, did not have any sort of alcohol in his system. And the three young men who brought him did not seem to be under the influence of any alcohol or controlled substances. However, these men were not providing the level of detail that one would expect you to have if your friend had suffered such a traumatic injury. And police have to break through that.

They're not hardened criminals. These young men are 19-year-old college students. In addition to speaking with Detective Miller about what he was facing at the hospital, I did also speak with Detective Bray, who had indicated to me that he believed that he was given a false narrative by the young men that he encountered at the residence.

Detective Bray, when he's speaking with each of the individuals, is removing each person he's speaking with from the group so that they don't know what the person before them shared.

After you would talk to one who was a little more talkative, you'd learn a detail from the interview you did before that wasn't on point. So then you'd revisit the person that just lied to you in the previous interview and address it with them. So what started off as one interview for each of the 23 kids that were there turned into two or three or four. And so Detective Bray confronted them with the information provided by the other individuals.

And it's at that point that things start to take a pretty hard turn. The information that Andrew Wu Cho provided was explosive. When Detective Bray interviewed Andrew Cho, Andrew Cho did inform Detective Bray that these men were all part of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity. I had received a phone call from Detective Bray.

After hearing the news of this being a fraternity event, that changed my outlook as to what had happened, because it was apparent to me that they were omitting facts. And why would they just say they were here for a weekend getaway before finals started, when it was truly a whole fraternity weekend? The fact that they failed to mention that this was part of a fraternity, that they were part of a fraternity, was a big piece of information for them to just leave out innocently.

I personally didn't have a whole lot of background in fraternities or Greek life. I did ask Andrew if Mike was a member of this fraternity, and he said that that day he would have become a member of their fraternity. And I believe I asked, did that mean he was a pledge or along those lines? And he said, yes, he was. It was one of those aha moments, like, oh, this is probably not an accident. Or if it was an accident, something bad was going on that led to this accident.

We now have learned that this is a fraternity event and that's when we go to the point of like, all right, what more is there? If they don't even want us to know it's a fraternity, we need to look hard.

Meaningless stuff. Why do we gift so much meaningless stuff? Tired of generic gifts and hollow trends? Shutterfly allows you to create meaningful photo gifts for your family and friends, whether it's a cozy fleece blanket for grandma, a stunning canvas print for mom, or a mug to make dad smile. Enjoy 40% off with code MAKE40 at Shutterfly.com and make something meaningful this year. See site for more details.

Greek life at Baruch was a little different than it is at other universities. Baruch is an urban college and Baruch also had an active Asian fraternity and many universities do not have that.

Pai Delta Sai is an Asian cultural fraternity. Delta Sai had a very big draw for someone like Michael because these were individuals that were from the New York area, were likely to go into businesses still in the New York area, and represented opportunities for Michael in his future. The three males that brought Michael in, Sheldon Long,

Charles Lai and Danny Chen were still at the hospital in the waiting room. And I went back downstairs to speak with them individually. During the second round of interviews, their body language had changed, their emotions have changed after I confronted them with the fact that I knew that this was a fraternity event and all of them are fraternity members.

During my interview with Danny Chin, he was the first one where I started to learn a few things that had happened at the house in reference to the fraternity.

Danny Chin confirmed that they were there pledging and it was a crossover weekend.

Historically in fraternities, there are three big events that often present dangers labeled the three deadly nights by a former executive director for a national fraternity. And those three events are when potential new members actually get their bid to join the fraternity. There's another night called the big little night where there's a big brother that's revealed to a younger brother. And then there's crossing over.

which is the moment in time when you go from being a pledge to being a full-fledged member. - Danny Chen is very reluctant, but does acknowledge that Michael was injured during a ritual called the glass ceiling.

When I called Detective Miller at the hospital to get an update and give him details, I learned about this glass ceiling ritual. I figured out that there were other pledges still on scene, and I tried starting with them. But when I did that, I noticed some similar inconsistencies with their statements. I noticed they all had knuckle injuries, and they all gave me some story about where it came from, whether it's because they boxed or they did Muay Thai.

I could tell they were lying and they weren't being forthcoming about what was going on. After the second round of interviews with these males, I did not feel that they were being honest. I felt that they were omitting a lot of facts and plainly refusing to answer any questions about the fraternity. When individuals get seriously injured in hazing incidents, police face a wall of silence.

Individuals who are committed to their brotherhood, individuals that are committed to presenting a consistent story. All of the brothers that were still there on scene were still sitting in this living room, kind of all laid out around this living room together. But they still had their devices, their phones and everything with them. It became so apparent during the course of all the statements that there were communications between all these brothers. So I called Rob at the hospital.

We knew that the males were on their phones. That was observed not only at the house by Detective Bray, but also myself at the hospital. They were very secretive about what they were doing on their cell phones. During the interview with one of the individuals, Charles Lye, I had confronted him with the information that I received from Detective Bray. Charles Lye admitted that he was using his phone to be in contact with people at the residence.

When we learned that they were communicating and that there was text messages or calls being made to the other brothers that were up at the hospital, we knew that they were acting in concert basically with each other to protect some greater good which they were trying to do for the fraternity. I knew there was a bigger picture here and so we took that opportunity to secure everybody's phones. We knew that this was getting to be quite large of an investigation. We needed additional resources.

I responded back to police headquarters to meet with Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Metzger, where we were going to prepare search warrants for the residents, the vehicles, and their cellular phones. We knew that time was ticking. Every person that we spoke to was not from Pennsylvania. They were all from New York. So we knew that as soon as they left here, the chances of getting a good statement from them or collecting the evidence that we need could be gone.

When I arrived at the house for the very first time, I met with Detective Bray. There was nothing that would ever show that this was a fraternity group. It wasn't until we started to search that we found all of their jerseys and sweatshirts and pants and their banners and all these things that would show that this was a fraternity. There were candles and these candlestick holder looking staffs that were all symbolic ritual type things that they used.

during the course of their pledge process. - In addition to the fraternity memorabilia that was found inside of a garbage can in the kitchen, investigators found clothing that was identified as belonging to Michael Dang. And that indicated that they undressed him and changed his clothing. - To me, finding clothing in a garbage can

that were not ripped or torn, but just wet. I took that as you were trying to hide something or you're trying to destroy some type of evidence that you knew we may be looking for. - These individuals didn't just fail to give information. This was an active coverup. - Fraternities are often secret. They have to establish some basis

for them being special. There are certain rituals that are to be kept secret amongst the members, and often that secrecy becomes twisted. Everyone has an interest in mystery and wanting to know what something's about. So that same mystery that will draw you in and make you want to pledge can also be the same thing that causes the problems because no one knows about it.

Michael was drawn to the idea that this type of organization could help him socially, professionally. At the same time, he didn't know the risks that were inherent in joining this particular fraternity. I think it's typical everywhere that you try to find your place where you want to belong.

Whether it's like-minded people. When you go to college, especially, you try to find your group and kind of where you want to belong and kind of what you want to leave behind. It's terrible that to get into something that means brotherhood resulted in that. You know, why do you have to prove yourself to call someone your friend or your brother? While the cops are breaking open this story, Mary's alone.

The hospital and Mary were trying to keep Michael alive long enough for Michael's father to arrive from China so he could be with his son before he passed. Piece by piece, interview by interview, these brothers started opening up about what happened to Michael. I know you know what happened, man. I know you were there. You're gonna feel a lot better when you tell me what happened than when you're holding it in and worrying about the outcome.

On the morning of December 9th, 2013, just before 11 o'clock in the morning, we were informed that Michael had passed away from his injuries. While we appreciated on December 8th that Michael's prognosis was grim,

It's not until he actually passes away the next morning that this takes on a whole new level of seriousness because at this point now, we're dealing with a homicide. Going into December 2013, Michael Ding was just another freshman at Baruch College who happened to be pledging for an Asian American fraternity.

Then after December 2013, everyone at Baruch knew his name, including the national news. Every student at Baruch was notified by email about the death of their schoolmate. Most were shocked and appalled at the death of the 19-year-old freshman. I believe it was December 12th that we first got the email from our residence hall director.

It was a shock to find out that one of my students had passed away because we weren't given a lot of details in the very beginning. There were a lot of students that were coming to ask me questions, especially that it was my student.

This did cause emotional distress for a lot of students because whether you know him personally, it's still another student that, you know, lost his life. To know that they go through this extreme pressure of, you know, being a part of something, you know, and to actually harm their health, like, it's just disgusting. Should never be pushed to the limit where somebody loses his life.

I did get some initial statements about there being this glass ceiling type ritual, but now it was our obligation to figure out who did what and who did more. Police needed to understand the nature of the fraternity structures because it's only then that the police can understand ultimately who might be responsible for traditions and rituals that have taken place.

During this weekend here in the Poconos with this fraternity, there were a total of four pledges that were crossing over this weekend, and Michael Dang was just one of four. As I'm learning about Greek life and the fraternity structure through the interviews, I learned that Kenny Kwan was the PA, or the pledge assistant, and his role was overseeing the rituals.

Sheldon Wong was the pledge educator and had oversight, I guess, of all of the pledges and the process from start to finish with them. Charles Lye was described by Danny Chen to be Michael's big or his big brother in the fraternity. And so when Detective Miller went back to speak with Charles Lye, Charles Lye does acknowledge that and provides additional information about the ritual.

We learned the glass ceiling for the pledges were supposed to symbolize the glass ceiling that the Asian culture faces here in the United States. The glass ceiling is usually considered, at least for Asian Americans, that once you hit a certain level in your profession, your career, you can only see what's above you, but you can never get there.

They were showing the pledges that no matter what type of resistance you get while in any aspect of life, you can always call out for your big brother or your fraternity for assistance. And here you have an incident where a young man wanted to pledge his fraternity and was proud of it, and the fraternity causes his death. Michael Dayne's death definitely had a big effect on the Baruch community because it's not every day that someone dies at Baruch College from a hazing incident.

Deaths do occur, but they're typically, you know, from health-related issues. It's different when it's a hazing death. He died trying to basically just find a place he belonged and find friends. And that's part of what just makes the whole situation so upsetting for Baruch students. December 10th of 2013, myself and Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Metzger, we attended the autopsy of Michael Deng.

And that autopsy revealed that Michael suffered substantial trauma, not only to his head, resulting in substantial brain injury, but also to his back, to his internal organs. Michael was bruised basically from the top of his skull all the way down to his tailbone.

Initially, the fraternity members described to the police that this was essentially a king of the mountain type of activity that would have perhaps resulted in a bruise here or a scrape there. But the nature and extent of Michael's injuries were so severe that something more had happened to cause this level of abuse. Ultimately, it was determined that there were at least three tiers of abuse

this particular ritual that Michael had to go through to accomplish the goal of bursting through the glass ceiling. The first mentions of the glass ceiling ritual start pretty innocuous. They describe that the pledge is blindfolded, wearing his backpack, that the pledge, while blindfolded, would be told to call out for his big brother on the other side of a field.

And as he called out, he would try to navigate forward. There would be other young men, other brothers standing in his way. As that pledge made his way forward through that second tier, the physical contact would become more aggressive. Then the pledge educator would indicate the beginning of the third tier of the glass ceiling. The physical contact becomes much more severe.

We knew that Michael was one of four pledges that had to partake in the last ritual called the glass ceiling. And we knew that the other three pledges had a different experience than what Michael did. Michael's ritual was different in the fact of he got it a little bit harder. During the function, many members were upset with Michael because he wasn't following the rules. He was asking why they were pushing him, shoving him.

Many members were getting frustrated with Michael because he seemed to want to fight back. Raymond got really ticked off because I think he did kick him in the head. And Raymond did, you know, got a bit more aggressive.

At one point, Michael is knocked to the ground so severely that he can't stand up on his own. And he's told by members of the fraternity that he must continue forward.

When he doesn't continue forward, it's at that point that Kenny Kwon took a running start.

It became apparent that Michael...

went unconscious after this last violent hit from Kenny Kwan. - I see him on the floor and then everyone's crying around him. And then we're just trying to wake him up. - It was described that he was laying there motionless. They said he was stiff and rigid in posture. The way they were describing him to me is something that I was familiar with and our detectives are. It's called corticate posturing. That's the body's reaction to a major head trauma.

Danny described that when Michael wouldn't get up, the other young men brought him inside and were trying to get him basically back to consciousness. They did not want emergency personnel or police coming to the house and seeing how many individuals were at the house. They thought that one of the ways to get him to regain consciousness was to put sugar on his lips.

They tried to warm him up, tried to figure out what was wrong with him because he was wet and dirty. They put dry clothes on him before someone made the decision to take him to the hospital. We knew that there was a gap from the time Michael suffered his injury to the time he arrived at the hospital. We knew that was more than 15 minutes, like some of the members said. We had all these different statements, but none of them said that it was a couple of hours.

we came to understand there was approximately two hours of delay from the onset of the injury when the individuals knew that Michael was in trouble between then and when he ultimately got medical care. And we know that had he gotten timely medical care, he would have survived. In the days following Michael's death, Andy Meng, the national president of the Pai Delta Sai fraternity, sent out a statement on behalf of the fraternity

giving condolences to Michael's family and friends for his death. In that statement, the fraternity made sure to label that event as an unsanctioned event and said that they would be looking into it. From early on, the national fraternity is trying to distance itself, but we weren't convinced. December 20th, 2013, Detective Bray and I, we responded into Manhattan to go to Baruch College.

During that trip, we were also going to meet Mary at Michael's dorm room. We were told as the RAs to make sure that nobody would go into that room, that it was now, you know, under police surveillance and that they had to come through the room first before anything could be moved or touched. There could have been evidence in the room.

Within the residence hall, it was pretty eerie just because that room ended up being off limits when that first happened. So no one really wanted to go there or go to that area. We also met with his roommate and spoke to him about Michael

He described Michael as a very caring guy, a great roommate, a good student. But he hasn't really seen him recently because he was pledging this fraternity. And when he did see him, he was exhausted or he was running late to things. In speaking with Mary about her last few conversations with Michael, she saw him as being fatigued, being a little frazzled.

And she interpreted that as being due to the stress of establishing himself on campus. Mary did not know that Michael was even pledging a fraternity. Being in a fraternity is a unique American tradition. Mary hadn't gone to a U.S. college, neither had Michael's father. And so Mary had no basis for knowing that Michael was joining something and what in particular that meant.

At this point in time, Mary was most focused on grappling with her own grief, in part because her focus in her life had been on her son and raising him and her family. In any homicide case, it's always important to get some type of justice. So, you know, meeting Mary and having a face and an attachment now, it made it even more important to get her the answer she deserved.

We also collected his computer, his iPad, and some other documents from his dorm room that would hopefully assist us with this investigation. This is a paddle that was made by Michael and it was for his big brother. It says, "Dear Big, hey there. By the time you're reading this, I should," and in parentheses says, "hopefully be done with this process."

You know, it's eerie to see that this was, you know, the last thing that Mike had done for this guy who was supposed to be his big brother, who, you know, ultimately contributed and participated in those hits that led to Mike's death. During the first couple months of 2014, we were still waiting on a lot of evidence to come in.

One of the items that was recovered in the search of the residence was a camera that someone had brought with them for the crossing weekend. And they had been snapping photos throughout the weekend of the brothers inside of the house. And so through that, as well as some of the information we received back from a search of Michael's dorm room back in New York City,

We were able to piece together the kind of missing pieces. There were individuals that had been present at the house but had left prior to the police arriving. It turned out there were nine of them that had left prior to this. So at this time, we had over 30 suspects in Michael's death.

It took a long time to understand what levels of culpability for each of the 37 defendants that were ultimately charged in this case. Through the communications that we found on Charles Lai's phone, it was clear that he was in direct communication with Andy Meng, again, the national president of Pai Del Desai, throughout the morning of December 8, 2013. ♪♪

What we saw was Annie Meng directing Charles Lye and other members of that colony to cover up and hide and make sure that the national fraternity was not at all attached to this hazing event.

So here you have Andy Meng, the national president, saying, "Oh, I'm sorry for the death of Michael." We also knew that this just wasn't colony-based at Baruch College. This just wasn't a chapter of the fraternity that went rogue and did something they weren't supposed to. This extended all the way to the national president of the fraternity for the entire country.

- Once 2015 came around, we really had a better concept of the fraternity. And it's at that point that we had enough to charge them. - There's a reason why hazing is not permitted in fraternities because of events like this. - Enough is enough. - They have to take responsibility for the death they caused and the coverup that they created. - Michael Dang was the victim of a hazing incident

Multiple individuals were involved in his death. At the point that we were going to be charging 37 individual defendants, what we decided was that we were going to charge in groups. And so the first group was primarily everybody that was charged with hazing. Everybody that lied to us during the course of the investigation. That was considered hindering apprehension.

And so then we eventually get up to what we'll call the top tier individuals that hit Michael or were responsible during that last phase of the G. And it also included Sheldon Wong. While Sheldon Wong had no sort of physical contact with Michael, he was responsible for overseeing the event. And he, by his own statements, could have stopped the events at any point. And he chose not to.

It wasn't until after we started charging that members started to come forward with definitive hard proof of the fraternity's knowledge of these hazing rituals. Daniel Lee provided to us a copy of what the fraternity called their pledge education manual that controlled how the pledging process, not only for the Baruch colony, but for every colony and every chapter of Pi Delta Psi,

While the actual requirements of the glass ceiling ritual were not laid out in writing in the pledge education manual, that was clearly done on purpose.

One of the first lines is about how there should be one copy printed and then the electronic copy should be deleted, that any other copies should be destroyed because what was written in that pledge education manual was explosive. But what wasn't written was even worse. And the fraternity knew that. What did he do that night at the frat house?

The main actors who had initially been charged with murder in the third degree ultimately pled their cases down to voluntary manslaughter and each faced incarceration as a result of their conviction. The National Fraternity was the only defendant that faced a jury trial in this case.

The individuals that were brought in to testify in defense of the fraternity tried to make it seem as if this stuff could happen without any input from the national fraternity. But despite that, those jurors saw that they too acknowledged that they went through the exact same process, even if it had been six or ten years before trial.

Police had done such a thorough investigation and got such damning evidence that the national organization has no credible defense. The fraternity was ultimately convicted of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, hindering apprehension, and hazing. It took four years to bring this case to a conclusion. And over that four years, we worked tirelessly to bring justice for Michael and for his family.

And while it's a point of pride for us in the work that we did, there's no reason that we should be prosecuting a fraternity for the death of a pledge because it shouldn't happen. As eager as college students can be to find the sense of belonging, it's also important to learn a big lesson that your life is more important. Your individuality is more important.

Following Michael Dang's death, Bruch College instated a moratorium that basically prevents any Greek life organization from recruiting new members. What happens when an organization can't recruit new members? Well, the current members just keep going to class and eventually they graduate and eventually there's no one left in the club and there's no current members. And if there's no members in the club and there's no one who's running the executive board and there's no budget, then the club gets labeled as inactive.

It's horrifying that somebody like Michael, with all the promise Michael had, would die in a ritual where he's trying to succeed. Because Michael really could have gone through the glass ceiling on his own, without help, with his family behind him, and with every characteristic he had already demonstrated in his life.

Michael was full of promise, full of pride for his family, and full of life. Do we step into the light? Let the sunlight burn us. Peel off the skin that's kept the truth inside us. Let the songs crush all the weary bones. When wolves come down.

Next week, we'll hear an episode about a prospective law student from the University of South Carolina who called a rideshare and never made it home.

Death in the Dorms was produced by ABC News Studios with the Intellectual Property Corporation and, yes, Like a River for Hulu Originals. You can find the series streaming on Hulu. Don't forget to tune in to ABC Friday Nights at 9 for brand new broadcast episodes of 2020. Thanks for listening.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. It's Brad Mielke, host of ABC's daily news podcast, Start Here. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart choice. Make another smart choice with AutoQuote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy.