Gurnee student found dead at Miami University had passion for helping less fortunate

While she was a Warren Township High School student, Erica Buschick went out of her way to help a wheelchair-bound student get from class to class, her father Eric said.She also spent her summers working for the Gurnee Park District, helping handicapped children,...

Gurnee student found dead at Miami University had passion for helping less fortunate

While she was a Warren Township High School student, Erica Buschick went out of her way to help a wheelchair-bound student get from class to class, her father Eric said.

She also spent her summers working for the Gurnee Park District, helping handicapped children, her father said.

"That was her passion," Eric Buschick said.

That passion remained strong in the fall when she went off to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She enrolled as a special education major and joined the school's chapter of Best Buddies, a volunteer organization serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The group's mission of inclusion really appealed to her, according to Macy Fraylick, a Miami University senior and the president of the 300-member chapter.

Attending Miami was her dream, her father said, and she wanted to one day become a teacher so she could work professionally with those less fortunate.

But Buschick's dreams were cut short when she was found dead in her Morris Hall dorm room on Jan. 20.

A Miami University Police Department report and a 911 call from her roommate indicate Buschick, 18, spent the previous evening drinking with friends, had fallen multiple times and had to be helped back to her room.

The Butler County Coroner's Office has not released a toxicology report, but Miami University President Greg Crawford acknowledged in a statement to the university community the police report's suggestion that "alcohol contributed to this tragedy."

"You have no idea how many questions I have about that night," Eric Buschick said.

Audio: Roommate's 911 call after Gurnee teen found dead in Miami University dorm room

Erica Buschick, a freshman at Miami University in Ohio, was found dead in her dorm room on Jan. 20, 2017. The following audio is from the 911 call her roommate made that morning. (Butler County Sheriff’s Office)

Erica Buschick, a freshman at Miami University in Ohio, was found dead in her dorm room on Jan. 20, 2017. The following audio is from the 911 call her roommate made that morning. (Butler County Sheriff’s Office)

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Erica Buschick had just returned to Miami University after winter break, arriving at about 5 p.m. on Jan. 19, according to the police report. She and her roommate began drinking at about 10 p.m., consuming approximately two bottles of champagne between them, the report said. They then filled a water bottle about halfway with vodka and went to an off-campus apartment to "pregame," a term to describe drinking before going out to a bar or party.

Buschick continued drinking at the apartment, according to the report. She first fell as the group was leaving to walk to a bar, the report says, and was too drunk to enter the bar when she arrived. She eventually reunited with her roommate, and they called a taxi to take them back to Morris Hall.

The taxi driver told police Buschick fell again while exiting the taxi at Morris Hall and that her roommate asked him to help get Buschick back into her room. The driver said in a written statement that the roommate asked him not to call anyone because the girls were worried about getting in trouble. The driver helped Buschick back into her room and was afraid she would fall down and hit her head, so he laid her down on her left side on a bean bag chair, according to the report.

When the roommate awoke the next morning, Buschick hadn't moved.

Eric Buschick had been in Las Vegas for business. He got a call about his daughter as he was driving home from the airport.

"It's something that everyone says, 'Time will cure,'" Buschick said. "But it's not going to cure it."

He said he is trying to "work with the university right now to correct, to make sure that this never happens again."

Erica Buschick Provided by Donna Buschick

Erica Buschick

Erica Buschick

(Provided by Donna Buschick)

"I don't blame anybody," Eric Buschick said. "I'm just saying, if certain processes were in place, things would be different."

His daughter was three minutes from a hospital, he said.

Buschick's roommate told police that Buschick brought some alcohol from home.

"I'm not going to lie. I have liquor at my house," Eric Buschick said. "And if she took liquor out of my house, that would have been of her own accord."

Police also found an expired Missouri driver's license for a 23-year-old woman in Buschick's possession during the investigation, according to the report.

Crawford, the university president, said in his statement that he will undertake a "holistic assessment" of the school's effort to curb high-risk alcohol consumption.

"She was my baby girl," Eric Buschick said.

He described his daughter as a fun-loving girl who enjoyed traveling and working out. She was "very confident, but very passionate and very kind to others," he said, and she "really did what she wanted to do, whether you were going to like that or not.

"She was not a follower," Eric Buschick said. "She was a leader."

Clayton Neighbors, a professor and director of the Social Influences and Health Behaviors Lab at the University of Houston, has been studying excessive drinking among college populations for 20 years. He said many college students "don't understand how much they're drinking or what the consequences are for getting their blood-alcohol concentrations (BACs) up beyond a reasonable point, and how easy it is to do that, depending on what you're drinking."

College freshman from Gurnee found dead at Miami University in Ohio Luke Hammill

A college freshman from Gurnee was found dead last week in her dorm room at Miami University in Ohio.

Erica Buschick, 18, was found by her roommate the morning of Jan. 20 in Morris Hall at the campus in Oxford, Ohio, according to Claire Wagner, a university spokeswoman. The roommate called 911...

A college freshman from Gurnee was found dead last week in her dorm room at Miami University in Ohio.

Erica Buschick, 18, was found by her roommate the morning of Jan. 20 in Morris Hall at the campus in Oxford, Ohio, according to Claire Wagner, a university spokeswoman. The roommate called 911...

(Luke Hammill)

Neighbors said "pregaming" carries "really heavy risk," especially if students drink hard liquor rather than beer. And gender plays a role, as well, he said.

"Women who don't weigh very much, their BACs can ramp up in a short amount of time," Neighbors said. "More than men, because their body concentration is different. So they would get higher BACs, even if they're the same weight as guys."

Neighbors said an average 18-year-old female weighing between 125 and 130 pounds would reach an estimated BAC of .39, which would be potentially fatal, by drinking 12 standard drinks in three hours. That would be 18 ounces of 80-proof vodka, or about half of a 750-milliliter bottle, he said.

Eric Buschick said he "can't even explain" the toll his daughter's death has taken on his family. He and his wife, Donna, have two other daughters, ages 22 and 20.

"You can't comprehend a girl, 18 years old, who's no longer with us," he said.

Erica Buschick knew she wanted to go into special education after participating in P.E. Leaders both semesters her senior year, said Gail Triveline, her guidance counselor at Warren Township High. The program paired one regular education student with one special education student for the entire gym period.

"(It) gave her that feeling of supporting others," Triveline said. "It was what made her realize she was going into the right field. She was so happy she knew what she was going to do."

Triveline described Buschick as "an exceptional young lady — full of life," who would have been a "great special education teacher."

A past English teacher told Triveline she thought that too because Buschick always managed to make even her most boring lessons fun.

"She made me smile every time she walked into my office," Triveline said.

News-Sun reporter Emily K. Coleman contributed.

lhammill@tribpub.com

Twitter @lucashammill

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