Mary Harvey says students at the University of Mississippi are now “scared to leave their dorm rooms” after she was allegedly drugged at a bar and found unconscious in her residence hall hallway, an incident that came just days before two male students were discovered dead on Monday.
Harvey, a freshman at the Oxford, Mississippi campus, said on Wednesday that she had gone out Saturday to watch the Ole Miss Rebels face Louisiana State University in the annual Magnolia Bowl football rivalry. The 18-year-old said she has “no recollection” of what transpired after the game concluded.
“Around the time when the game ended, I do not remember a single thing. I was told by a boy that was there that I fell down,” she explained.
According to Harvey, she was placed in an Uber and transported back to her dormitory, where she subsequently disappeared while her roommate was showering. The roommate searched every floor of the building before discovering Harvey passed out in their dorm hallway, Harvey said.
“My roommate got in the shower and she said while she was in the shower, I went missing,” Harvey recounted. “She left the dorm to find me and was searching everywhere, searched every floor. But on her way back from searching, she found me passed out in the hall of my dorm.”
On her Facebook page, Harvey wrote that she had been “spiked” and repeated that she possessed “no recollection of the night at all.” Her account emerged as the 28,400-student university grapples with the deaths of two male students, ages 18 and 20, whose bodies were found Monday in separate locations.
Lafayette County Coroner Glenn Coleman told the Clarion Ledger that one student was discovered inside his on-campus dormitory while the other was found at his off-campus residence. Packaged kratom purchased from a retail store was located during the two death investigations, though authorities have not established any causal link.
Lafayette County Metro Narcotics stated it “does not have confirmed information indicating that kratom or any other substance was a contributing factor in either death.” The unit urged caution regardless: “Out of an abundance of caution, we encourage everyone to avoid kratom and any other medication or substance that was not prescribed to you or obtained from a trusted, regulated source.”
Toxicology results for the deceased students are anticipated within two to three weeks, Coleman said.
The back-to-back tragedies have rattled the campus community. Biology sophomore Jay Van Dyke told WLOX the atmosphere has become deeply unsettling.
“It’s very scary,” Van Dyke said. “It is like you can’t even know what you can trust. What is safe to do. You just almost want to stay inside and that is silly.”
Fellow student Raven Tunstall expressed similar dismay to the outlet, framing the losses as a profound disruption of collegiate expectations.
“We have so much life ahead of us,” Tunstall said. “College is supposed to be where we grow and make new experiences. It’s not supposed to be where our lives end.”
Dr. Shawnboda Mead, the university’s vice chancellor for student affairs, issued a statement acknowledging the collective grief. “The University is heartbroken by the recent loss of two students and extends our condolences to their families, friends and loved ones during this difficult time,” she said.