When most of us think of the university, we generally like to think we are a tight-knit community. We rely on our peers to help and protect one another. However, to the Scrocca family, whose son Michael lost his life in 2005 in a fire started by Daniel Murray, it seems that for at least six members of the campus community, the desire to protect friends overtook the responsibility to come forward with crucial information regarding their son’s murder.
We’d like to think that in the wake of such an enormous tragedy, those who knew anything would be inclined to come forward and offer all the information they had. Information that would not only help bring a murderer to justice and help make our campus a little safer, but also help ease the pain and suffering of a family whose only solace could be found in answers. Unfortunately, we thought wrong.
Secrets and lies created to protect friends from justice and punishment do not make us better friends. Daniel Murray’s friends, who for over a year carried with them the truth of Scrocca’s death, were friends to no one. They allowed Murray to continue on with his life without ever facing justice or taking responsibility for the life he took, despite the fact that he had openly spoken about what he had done, according to police investigators. In turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering of Scrocca’s friends and family, all six people who knew of Murray’s crime failed miserably in their moral obligation to alert authorities to his involvement. These six people have also created a dangerous precedent that raises questions about whether a culture of secrecy exists on this campus that protects the guilty and puts the innocent at risk.
It is sickening and disturbing to know that these “friends” of Daniel Murray, members of our community as well as Mike’s, would prolong the suffering of so many people involved in this tragedy. It took nearly a year for the truth to reach the Scrocca’s, the police and the campus community. However, it wasn’t any of the at least six friends Murray told about his involvement who finally found their conscience and came forward – none of them did. It was another person who got word of Murray’s involvement who eventually came forward and helped solved the tragic mystery. Even more disturbing, The Diamondback’s Mariana Minaya reported that the tipster gave the source of the information an ultimatum: You tell the police that you have significant information, or I will. The source never took the tipster up on their offer.
We do not know who the person that came forward was, nor do we know the friends who did not. What we do know is that this case was not about covering for your buddy. It was not about being a good friend and keeping a personal story between the two of you. It’s about the ability to understand right and wrong. It’s about protecting others from similar harm, and helping to bring closure to a grieving family. Hopefully, the lesson of this callous murder will be learned: Students must strongly reject any notions of secrecy or loyalty that allow criminals to run the streets and prevent families from seeing justice done.
