Reward doubled to $100k for information on 7-year-old Clemson fraternity death

The reward for information on the death of a Clemson University student who died in a fall during a run with his Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity brothers has been increased to $100,000.

The reward has doubled since the family held a press conference on the seventh anniversary of his death in September.

Helen Westmoreland, Oconee County Sheriff’s Office coordinator of Crime Stoppers and community outreach, said Thursday the additional reward money pledges came from the Sigma Phil Epsilon fraternity, North American Interfraternity Conference and the Anti-Hazing Coalition and someone who asked to remain anonymous.

She said tips continue to come in and all are investigated. She encouraged anyone with information, no matter how small, to call the tip line.

“That may be the missing piece,” she said.

Investigators have described what they know about Hipps’ death as a picture — the frame is whole, and they are filling in the inside.

What is known is that Hipps had some sort of altercation with an older fraternity member then slipped from a guard rail on the Highway 93 bridge in the early morning hours of Sept. 22, 2014. He hit his head on rocks in Lake Hartwell.

No fraternity member reported him missing for hours.

On the seventh anniversary of Hipps’ death in September, his parents held a news conference and pleaded with fraternity members to come forward and tell what they know.

“I’ve forgiven them,” Cindy Hipps said at the time. “I would love to tell them that.”

Fraternity members have declined to talk to law enforcement.

Gary Hipps said at the press conference the code of silence was “misguided allegiance.”

Also at the press conference was Daniel Catullo, a documentary filmmaker who has included Tucker Hipps’ story in a film about fraternities, hazing and the silence that surrounds their activities.

Catullo, who was a member of the same fraternity Tucker was pledging, Sigma Phi Epsilon, said the Hipps case was the only one in which no fraternity brother would talk about what happened. He said 29 fraternity members were there that day, and all 60 members know what happened and should tell what they know.

Oconee County Sheriff’s investigator Jimmy Dixon said at the press conference the Hipps case remains open and is being reinvestigated with “fresh eyes.”

“What we’re looking for is the truth,” Dixon said. “We won’t stop until we find the truth.”

Cindy and Gary Hipps have crusaded for fraternity safety in the years since their son’s death. Their work resulted in the Tucker Hipps Transparency Act in 2016. The act requires public schools to report investigations of student organizations.

Anyone with information on Hipps’ death is asked to contact Dixon at the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Bureau, (864) 718-1052.