Edmond, OK
Saturday, February 31st

 Police were called to 100 North University Drive early Saturday morning after complaints of screaming, and the discovery of the body of University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) student Lauren Winslow. Winslow, a 19-year-old freshman from Waco, Texas, was found dead early Saturday morning by her roommate. Witnesses say Winslow’s body was discovered right in front of the door to her dorm room in West Hall on UCO’s campus.
Edmond police spokesperson Glenda Chu stated that Winslow was likely the victim of a homicide.

“It's pretty apparent that there was foul play involved,” said Chu. “This seems to be a murder via stabbing.”

Chu also stated that Winslow’s roommate was very shaken up by the event. Chu wouldn’t release the name of Winslow’s roommate, but UCO registration records indicate that Winslow’s roommate is Danielle Tanner, an 18-year-old freshman who is also from Waco, Texas. Several people claim that girls have been friends since early childhood. Holly Marsh, a sophomore from Norman, is the resident advisor for the second floor of West Hall, the floor where the girls lived and the event happened.



“Danielle and Lauren did everything together,” said Marsh. “It is really tragic what happened.”

Marsh claims that Tanner told her exactly what happened the night of the murder.

“[Tanner] heard scratching at the door [early Saturday morning], and she was frightened by it. [Tanner] was afraid because she was the only girl [in the dorms]. Everyone else was at [West Hall Girl’s Night Out]. Danielle was the only one home because she left [the event] early.”

Marsh explained that Tanner was tired Friday night, which is why she left the event early. Marsh also said that Tanner got a text-message from Winslow at approximately 11:30 PM Friday, in which Winslow explained that she was on her way back to the dorms. Surveillance camera footage shows Winslow entering West Hall, alone and apparently uninjured, at approximately 12:03 AM Saturday . Marsh claimed that Tanner started to hear the scratching at the door at roughly 2:00 AM Saturday. According to Marsh, Tanner was so frightened by the scratching at the door that she hid in the bathroom, with the door looked, and slept in the bathtub. When Tanner opened the door to her room to go to for an early morning jog, she saw Winslow lying on the ground, dead. Marsh claims that Winslow had cuts on the front of her neck.

“[Tanner] is pretty sure that the scratching at the door was Lauren,” said Marsh. “[Tanner] is just heartbroken over the entire thing; [Tanner] thinks that if she hadn't been so afraid, maybe she could have helped Lauren, maybe even saved her life.”

The Edmond Police Department, as well as other agencies, are investigating this crime with top priority.

“We are still trying to figure things out,” said Chu. “We are looking at the surveillance cameras as well as talking to Winslow’s neighbors and classmates, but currently, we have no suspects.”

In the wake of this tragic event, classes have been cancelled Monday at UCO.


Author's Notes

The original story is a great example of an urban legend because it is very plausible. Snopes.com has not ruled this story true or false, so it may have actually happened. It is the perfect story to leave listeners/readers with an eerie sense of "what if?" in the back of their minds.
    I’ve obviously changed the way the story is written to make it read more like news. In the original Snopes.com version of the story, the incident happened over Christmas or Thanksgiving break. I did not want to jinx any real life people, or have any people stumble across my page and mistake it for real news, so I gave a phony date of February 31st, so that all the crimes happen on February 30th. (Both days do not exist on the calendar. I’m superstitious about things like this.) With my date, I couldn’t make the murder occur over Christmas or Thanksgiving break, so to put the girl in a setting where she was alone, I wrote that the dorm was having a “Girl’s Night Out.” I’ve given the girls names, Danielle Tanner and Lauren Winslow, as well as introduced new characters who aren’t mentioned in the Snopes.com version: Holly Marsh, the resident advisor, and Glenda Chu, the PR person for the Edmond Police Dept. (Glenda Chu is name of the real-life PR person for the Edmond Police Dept.). I did not think it would be realistic to interview the roommate in this story, so that’s the reason I made up the RA. Holly Marsh, the RA, is someone who is kind of removed from the situation, but is still close to it. I also didn’t think it would be realistic for the police department to reveal info about the roommate. That is another reason why I added the Holly Marsh character. West Hall is a real dormitory at UCO, and I also added the part about the surveillance camera.

Bibliography

Title: The Roommate’s Death
Websource:Snopes.com