7/19/2011

Incoming freshman in very serious accident

Please scroll down. There are three posts this Tuesday morning.

The local valedictorian said NO to Harvard. NO to Yale. NO to a prestigious scholarship at his home-state Indiana University, and YES, he was headed to Duke next month before tragedy struck. .

In Fishers, Indiana, the Cathedral High School graduate was with high school buddies. He dove into a local reservoir where the water was only three feet deep and suffered paralyzing injuries.

His name: Jay Ruckelshaus.

Police Lt. Mike Johnson said, "He went in head first and injuries occurred." Johnson said friends pulled Ruckelshaus from the water before paramedics arrived, and they also scurried to clean up empty beer cans from a back patio. It is unclear if the people who owned the house on the reservoir -- and the patio -- were in any way involved or related to the people in the accident. They told police they were awakened by a ruckus at the water.

Lt. Johnson also said one of the friends has given police information about a man in a nearby town who made the actual alcohol purchase for the teens.

Jay Ruckelshaus is from a prominent family. His father is a lobbyist working for a major law firm. And his great uncle has a name some will recognize: William Ruckelshaus, first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, appointed by President Nixon.

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