Students Hold Memorial Service for NIU Student Who Died Last Week

DEKALB - Students at Northern Illinois University organized a memorial service for David Bogenberger, the freshman student that was discovered dead inside the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house last Friday. Over a thousand students came out to pay their respects to the 19 year-old finance major.

Somber music greeted those in attendance at Wednesday's memorial service. The service included a variety of speakers, from the president of the Interfraternity Council at NIU to some of Bogenberger's closest friends. Bogenberger's childhood pastor started the memorial service with an opening prayer.

"I can assure you that David lives with his savior in heaven," said Pastor Tom Acton, senior pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Churchin Palatine.

His sudden passing had many in tears at the memorial service, and it even brought out the president of NorthernIllinois University.

"I come here on behalf of our board of trustees and the entire NIU community to offer heart-felt words of sympathy to David's family and to David's friends," said President John Peters.

Although Peters didn't confirm alcohol was a factor in Bogenberger's death, or actually mention alcohol directly in his speech, he certainly hinted at it.

"We have learned something from him, and we need to act on what we have learned," said Peters.

Kishwaukee Community Hospital's emergency room says they've seen roughly 400 alcohol involved incidents in the last year, many of those being college students.

"At that age they especially don't even think about that it can become an addiction very quickly,"said Cindy Graves, director of emergency services at Kishwaukee CommunityHospital.

"Binge drinking is so much worse than if you just have a couple of glasses of wine each day."

Graves says 400 alcohol related-incidents is relatively normal for her E-R. Graves says she's aware her hospital is located within a college town, but she mentions there comes some responsibility with drinking.

"They have to really watch out for each other," said Graves. "They have to be able to know when to tell someone, 'Hey, you need to knock it off, it's getting out of hand.'"

Initial autopsy results show no preliminary cause of death for Bogenberger, however the DeKalb Countycoroner suspects alcohol was involved. The toxicology results are due out sometime next week.