2008 Woodie Awards
Parents express gratitude for tipster who called police
Mariana Minaya
Issue date: 9/4/07 Section: News
Only two people close to the investigation know the identity of the tipster who ended a nearly yearlong search for the man who, in a fit of drunken anger, set 22-year-old Michael Scrocca's Princeton Avenue home ablaze. Leading investigator Detective Ben Brown and Mary Scrocca, Michael's mother, will not reveal the name of the student who called police after an acquaintance told her details about that evening.
"She won't even tell me," said Tony Scrocca, Michael's father.
The search for culpability in their son's senseless death is finally over for the family. They have dropped the civil lawsuits against the College Park Volunteer Fire Department and Michael's fraternity, Delta Tau Delta. After years spent seeking answers and explanations, the identity of the person who unraveled the mystery is unknown to most.
The meeting between the student tipster and the person who heard about the evening's fatal results from a coworker of Daniel Murray - the 21-year-old cell biology major who lit a broom on fire and threw it on a couch on Scrocca's porch - took place shortly before the one-year anniversary of Michael's death. Fraternities and sororities held a fundraiser for a memorial fund his family had established. Private investigators hired by the family questioned students. The memory of the finance major's death was fresh on people's minds.
"I think everything together somehow just kept it alive enough that some person that apparently didn't even know Mike knew that it was around the one year anniversary of that happening, and that sparked the conversation that ultimately led to this," said Brian Scrocca, Michael's brother.
The tipster casually met with a person who apparently heard an account of the evening from a co-worker who knew about Murray's involvement in the April 30, 2005 fire that killed Scrocca. Murray, who was heckled by partygoers at the Princeton Avenue house, encouraged co-workers at R.J. Bentley's to go back to the house with him. When they refused because he was very drunk, Murray returned alone to the home where a sleeping Michael Scrocca would draw his last breaths of the smoke that killed him.
"She won't even tell me," said Tony Scrocca, Michael's father.
The search for culpability in their son's senseless death is finally over for the family. They have dropped the civil lawsuits against the College Park Volunteer Fire Department and Michael's fraternity, Delta Tau Delta. After years spent seeking answers and explanations, the identity of the person who unraveled the mystery is unknown to most.
The meeting between the student tipster and the person who heard about the evening's fatal results from a coworker of Daniel Murray - the 21-year-old cell biology major who lit a broom on fire and threw it on a couch on Scrocca's porch - took place shortly before the one-year anniversary of Michael's death. Fraternities and sororities held a fundraiser for a memorial fund his family had established. Private investigators hired by the family questioned students. The memory of the finance major's death was fresh on people's minds.
"I think everything together somehow just kept it alive enough that some person that apparently didn't even know Mike knew that it was around the one year anniversary of that happening, and that sparked the conversation that ultimately led to this," said Brian Scrocca, Michael's brother.
The tipster casually met with a person who apparently heard an account of the evening from a co-worker who knew about Murray's involvement in the April 30, 2005 fire that killed Scrocca. Murray, who was heckled by partygoers at the Princeton Avenue house, encouraged co-workers at R.J. Bentley's to go back to the house with him. When they refused because he was very drunk, Murray returned alone to the home where a sleeping Michael Scrocca would draw his last breaths of the smoke that killed him.
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