Investigators are reviewing “a discrepancy” in the test samples that showed the presence of a “date-rape” drug in two University of Colorado students who were hospitalized last month after attending drinking parties.
The university was put on alert after the revelation that two female students tested positive for gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB. It is unclear whether the discrepancy was found in either of the positive tests or what the discrepancy is.
“Do we necessarily know whether or not there is any issue with these (positive results)? We don’t,” Boulder Police spokeswoman Julie Brooks said Friday. “We just want to be sure because something isn’t right.”
The positive results for GHB were a revelation about what many had previously believed was a night of excessive drinking at parties at fraternity houses and Boulder’s University Hill neighborhood.
The discrepancy makes that revelation murky – at least for now.
“It sounds like we are back to square one on the GHB thing,” said Marc Stine, a spokesman for fraternities in Boulder. “That’s the conclusion I draw.”
Brooks would not go that far. She said investigators are just trying to be thorough.
“We are in the process of doing additional testing,” Brooks said. “Investigators looking at the numbers – there is something that they think could be a discrepancy.”
Concern was raised last month after nine women, ages 18 and 19, were hospitalized in the early morning of Sept. 24 with symptoms related to excessive drinking. Those who called 911 that night to get help for the students did relay a concern about date-rape drugs.
Several of the women were said to have attended parties at Phi Kappa Tau or Sigma Pi fraternities, but police have since determined that at least two of the students did not go to either one. While hospitalized, some of the students asked to be tested for date-rape drugs.
After the GHB results were revealed, the level of one test sample was described as potentially fatal.
Phi Kappa Tau’s national office has since revoked the Boulder charter, although Stine said that decision had “absolutely nothing” to do with GHB.
The discrepancy was disclosed on the same day that a campus-wide e-mail was sent to CU students seeking help in the “recent cases of GHB drugging stemming from parties on the Hill.”
The e-mail asked for students who attended parties – specifically mentioning parties at Phi Kappa Tau and Sigma Pi fraternities – to contact Boulder police. It said students who provide helpful information likely would not face charges or sanctions from police or the university.
But Stine took exception with the e-mail mentioning fraternities since police have not implicated them.
“I’m glad that they are assisting and helping police with their investigation,” Stine said. “But wording it in that manner is uncalled for.”
Jacqueline Johnson with CU police said her department sent the e-mail on behalf of Boulder police.
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
