A student was found murdered in the School of Government building right before she was set to go home for the break. Michael Boulet found Jennifer Yeoman’s body while walking through the building at 3 a.m. on Dec. 12 — the last day of classes for the semester.
“It was awful,” Boulet said. “I was so tired that my mind wasn’t functioning right, and it took me about a minute to understand that the carnage around me was actually real. It’s a huge tragedy.”
Boulet had just finished a 10-page essay that was due at midnight. After turning in the essay, Boulet had five hours to study before his 8 a.m. final the next day. He decided to clear his head with a walk around campus when he stumbled across the scene.
“I understand why some people may suspect me,” Boulet said, “But if I were the murderer, I certainly wouldn’t have chosen a time when I was on my second all-nighter in a row.”
Campus security and the county sheriff’s office investigated the crime scene. Yeoman’s body was found in ‘The Commons,’ an open area on the top floor of the School of Government building designed as a community gathering space. Instead, it became a horrific crime scene.
Security Personnel Ethan Bailey and Freshman Genevieve Higman investigated the crime scene.
“I don’t know why I was chosen to help out,” Higman said, “But Ethan [Bailey] was insistent. I just rolled with it.”
Perhaps Bailey was onto something, because Higman found the first clue: Yeoman’s yodeling notes ripped up into a thousand pieces in a trash can at the School of Government. She yodeled every morning at ‘The Commons’ in the building.
“Someone obviously couldn’t stand her yodeling,” Bailey said, “And decided to do something about it. Which means it’s most likely that we’re looking for someone who had a class in the School of Government during that time.”
Despite narrowing down the suspects, the investigation went nowhere. No other clues surfaced, and the next phase of the investigation was underway.
At the beginning of the spring semester, two students were hired to find clues. The students wish to remain anonymous and will be referred to as “Mark” and “Quan.” They didn’t need to go undercover as they were already students, and went around asking who had grievances against Yeoman.
“I initially heard a lot of condolences for Yeoman,” Quan said, “but underneath it, there was a lot of tension. With a bit of pushing, people started sharing their true thoughts.”
A list of grievances started popping up against Yeoman. These included:
- Taking more than her share of treats at treat nights and coffee bars, including cleaning out many treat nights that weren’t hers.
- Being on the House Board for the benefits.
- Taking three hats and five shirts from the rebranding event in the concourse.
- Playing loud music at all hours of the night.
- Watching musicals in the Brooks rec room all night, an average of three times a week.
- Taking handfuls of forks from dining.
- Letting her partners in group projects do most of the work.
- Hoarding large cups from the scramble room for her personal use.
- Yodeling in ‘The Commons’ at 9:30 a.m. every morning.
- Parking her bike in the pathway that says “thou shalt not park thy bikes in the pathway.”
“I think the final straw,” Mark shared, “was [Yeoman] overgrazing her flock of sheep on the chapel green.” This incident occurred on Dec. 10, two days before she was murdered.
When asked why he seemed so knowledgeable about the killer’s intentions and thoughts, Mark shared that it “just made a lot of sense, you know? It just gets my blood boiling when I see someone overusing and degrading community resources. And I’m definitely not the killer, by the way.”
Without more clues from Mark and Quan, the investigation officially closed on Friday, Feb. 13, barring further evidence. The only other aspect of note is that Damilola Odunuga has not been seen on campus during the spring semester.
