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PART TWO: What happened to Dallas? by Ben Tipton, Cameron O'Neill and Jess Lipowski
SYNOPSIS OF PART ONE: In August 1979, 16-year-old genius James Dallas Egbert III disappeared from MSU. Had he been kidnapped? Had he committed suicide? (Notes and poems found in his room suggested he was depressed.) Had he been trapped in the steam tunnels below MSU while playing a real-life version of Dungeons and Dragsons? His distraught parents hired private investigator William Dear to find their son. After Dallas’ disappearance, Dear decided to search the tunnels, along with his associates and other maintenance engineers from the MSU campus. Through the mess of obstructions faced in the tunnels, Dear and his partner found some unusual underground rooms accessible only by crawling through a cramped tunnel. In the rooms, Dear found varying paraphernalia from beer cans to a paper mache head and even a table and chairs, according to his book on the case, titled The Dungeon Master. In one of the last enclaves, Dear and his partner came upon a place they suspected Dallas had once been. Dear found a table, chairs, a blanket and some left over cheese, crackers and milk in this room. Dear believed “only one person had come here, and it looked as if that person had intended to stay a while.” Although Dear and his team did not cover nearly all 8.5 miles the first day of the search, he was convinced that Dallas was not there.
The hunt continued and Dallas finally called Dear at 1:30 a.m., to tell him that he was OK but he refused to say where he was. Again, Dallas called but would not reveal his location. Dear tried to find a telephone employee willing and able to trace the call, not an easy thing to do at 4 a.m. in an era when telephone technology was mosty manual. After hours of worrying he might never hear from Dallas again, Dear received a call from the young man revealing that he was in Morgan City, Louisiana. n Morgantown, Louisiana, hiding out in a rundown building at the edge of town. Dallas had planned to commit suicide but instead fled, not realizing that he had triggered a major manhunt. The good news was that he was found safe. The bad news was that this was an era when mental illnesses such as depression were not treatable diseases as they are now. Sadly, a year later, the young man did commit suicide. Sources of help today One of the challenges that Dallas faced was declaring his homosexuality in a culture that was often unforgiving. Today approximately 175 students actively participate in the Office of Lesbian, Bi, Gay and Transgender concerns at MSU, but it wasn’t always that way. “MSU now offers courses focusing on LBGT identities, lives and experience. Those courses did not exist previously in 1979,” said Brent Bilodeau, Director of the Office of LBGT Concerns, who believes this is indicative of the culture change at MSU. Yet today, we see video games blamed just as Dungeons and Dragons was criticized for leading vulnerable young people astray. However, Richard Walters, criminal psychologist, suggests that the games are a symptom, not a cause. He believes that Dallas did not identify with others, resulting in the need to escape from himself through Dungeons and Dragons. “He did more damage to himself in isolation,” said Walters. If students do not learn to deal with these pressures they face every day, suicide will seem like the only available option. According to Monica Van Acker, volunteer for Listening Ear, those that are suicidal are lonely and do not feel they have a reason to live. “They don’t feel they have people in their lives that are willing to listen to them and the people that are in their lives have their own problems and don’t want to listen,” said Van Acker. “Make them realize they are important and needed. Tell them they do have a goal in life.” Dante*, a college student who has been dealing with a mental disorder for many years and recently attempted suicide, felt like he was alone and no one understood what he was going through. “Usually I just run from the pain,” he said. “However, there are other people going through this and you can get strength from them. When someone is going through the pain, it’s nice to know you’re not alone.” Many college students, whether you can tell or not, might be going through a tough time such as Dante’s. Van Acker, who volunteers once a week, deals with usually one call each time she works, having had a total of two serious, legitimate suicide calls in approximately a year and a half. “What we do is listening. We don’t give them advice,” she said. “We talk out all their emotions and help them get to the root of their problems and have them solve their own problems so they can handle it themselves.” AREA RESOURCES FOR HELP
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Other
things to watch for- Suicidal impulses, statements, plans;
giving away favorite things; previous suicide attempts, substance
abuse, making out wills, arranging for the care of pets,
extravagant spending, agitation, hyperactivity, restlessness
or lethargy.