Son has questions after plea
DUPREE from page 1
DuPree was scheduled to leave for a
school trip to Washington, D.C., and
Aaron promised he would wake up by
5:30 a.m. to say goodbye. He over
slept.
“If I would have woken up at 5:30,
1 could have talked to my father,”
"Aaron DuPree said.
When he did wake up, he went
"upstairs and saw his mother oh the
'floor in the bedroom and his sister’s
neck wounds, he said.
Though the exact sequence of
events is somewhat of a blur, he
Icnows he took his sister and covered
her wound with a cloth, he said.
“There was a problem, and I had
to fix it,” Aaron DuPree said. “I didn’t
feel for quite a while.”
Craig DuPree had called police
and said his wife was dead.
Aaron DuPree went back upstairs
and shut the door to his parents’ room
because his younger brother Ethan,
now 13, always went into the room
after he woke up; Aaron DuPree did
not want his brother to see their moth
er, he said.
He also woke up his other brother,
Jacob, now 18, and told him and
Ethan what happened and took them
downstairs. Ethan DuPree didn’t
believe it until he saw the blood,
Aaron DuPree said.
“I went back upstairs to sit with
my mother,” Aaron DuPree said. “She
was dead.”
Aaron DuPree left his mother
after some time and waited for police
outside.
Emily DuPree was taken to the
hospital and was released within a
couple days.
She recovered from the two stab
wounds to her throat and she, Ethan
and Jacob are now living with their
ahnt and uncle in Omaha.
Aaron DuPree h^s mixqd feelings
about h,is father, he said,
“There are some days I love him
and miss him, and there are others
where I am angry with him,” Aaron
DuPree said. “I’ve always loved my
father, and I’ll always love him
unconditionally. But that doesn’t
” I don’t even know how my mother
died. I’ve heard five to 10 different
stories of the sequence of events. I
don’t even know if those are true.”
Aaron DuPree
Craig’s son and UNL student
make him infallible, and it doesn’t
mean he doesn’t have to pay for what
he’s done.”
Aaron DuPree maintained regular
contact, maybe once or twice a week,
throughout that summer.
As school started in 1998, the vis
its became less frequent, about once a
month because of his busy school
schedule, he said.
Other than a few days ago at the
hearing, Aaron DuPree had not talked
to his father in person since March or
April of 1999, he said.
Aaron DuPree does get to talk to
his father over the phone on holidays
when he calls the family, but Craig
DuPree’s time is limited on the
phone, Aaron said.
Aaron DuPree said he never saw
any signs that his father was having
psychological problems, he said. But
he did know about the financial prob
lems.
“I’ve always been my mother’s
confidant,” Aaron DuPree said.
Since the killing, Craig DuPree
has been diagnosed by his psychia
trists with bipolar disorder.
The cycles of ups and downs were
not apparent to the family because
they went in long intervals that
spanned an 11 -year period, Aaron
DuPree said. Craig DuPree is now on
an anti-depressant, Aaron DuPree
said.
Aaron DuPree was disappointed
the case didn’t go to trial, because he
wanted to see.ahd hear all of the evi
dence.
“It’s not because I wanted him to
get off or that he would get worse,”
Aaron DuPree said. “I don’t even
know how my mother died. I’ve heard
five to 10 different stories of the
sequence of events. I don’t even know
if those are true.”
Even without a trial, Aaron
DuPree has been told that he can have
access to all of the evidence as long as
his father signs a document allowing
it. Craig DuPree told his son he
would, Aaron DuPree said.
Part of Aaron DuPree’s grieving is
a continuous process, he said.
“I carried a deep sadness with me
for a quite a while,” Aaron DuPree
said.
Coincidentally, days before his
mother’s death, Aaron DuPree fin
ished the book “When Bad Things
Happen to Good People.”
In the book it says bad things hap
pen, and God is there to help people
cope and heal from those experi
ences, Aaron DuPree said.
He said the views expressed in the
book have helped him grieve.
The university, especially James
Griesen, vice chancellor for student
affairs, and the theater department
have been understanding about his
financial situation and when he needs
to tend to family matters or see his
father in court.
He also said his family, girlfriend
and fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, have
provided support while he grieves.
Aaron DuPree said when he went
through his mother’s funeral guest
book he was amazed and impressed
at the support offered from his frater
nity brothers.
“There were more people at my
mother’s funeral than there were at
Frank Sinatra’s funeral that was a few
weeks before my mother’s,” Aaron
DuPree said.
“I love Sinatra, so that was a big
deal.”
Actions endanger NU on Wheels
WHEELS from page 1
rides, it causes everyone down the line
to have to wait,” said Daniel Brunsen,
one of the NU on Wheels drivers.
Students should look out for the
cabs, especially when they are down
town, because the cabs can’t double
park.
“We can’t stop more than a couple
of seconds,” Brunsen said.
Other incidents have involved
non-students. One cab driver was
punched in the stomach when he
wouldn’t take a paying rider home,
Corey said.
Some might think the job of chauf
feuring around intoxicated students -
part of the program’s clientele - does
n’t lend itself to respectability.
But Schmitz said all students have
a responsibility to show respect, no
matter their level of intoxication.
“(The drivers) anticipate that stu
dents need a ride home from drinking
at a party or at the bars,” Schmitz said.
“At the same time, they expect a level
of respect whether (the students) are
” It started out slow, but every week it
gets more.”
Donna Corey
personnel manager for Husker Cab Inc.
drunk or not.”
Drivers say when students show
their appreciation through tips it
improves the atmosphere and relation
ship between the drivers and the stu
dents.
Schmitz said the drivers’ tolerance
of these problems vVould determine
the ultimate consequences.
If they quit, the program is forced
to hire new drivers, she said.
Schmitz said she also doesn’t want
to jeopardize the relationship with
Husker Cab Inc. - the ohly cab com
pany in Lincoln.
Despite what she calls a “few bad
apples,” Schmitz said the response to
the program this semester has been
good.
Corey said the number of rides
provided continues to go up every
week.
“It started out slow, but every week
it gets more,” she said.
Schmitz reported that last semes
ter, 630 rides were given in the 27 days
the program was in operation.
Nearly 1,400 students participated
in the program.
Sixteen percent of the calls ended
up in voids, meaning the person who
called for the ride wasn’t there when
the driver showed up, she said.
Schmitz encouraged students to
call and cancel the cab if they found
another way home.
“Students need to call back and
say they don’t need a cab so the overall
efficiency of the program continues,”
she said.
McCain, Bush spar in heated debate
Lbs ANGELES (AP) - George W.
Bush accused John McCain in debate
Thursday night of smearing his reputa
tion with campaign attacks over religion
and said, “I don’t appreciate it one bit.”
His GOP presidential rival denied
the charge and said he had merely
served up “straight talk” about the Texas
governor’s visit to Bob Jones University.
In their 10th and final debate before
next week’s Super Tuesday primaries,
the two leading rivals for the Republican
nomination differed politely over which
man could better lead the GOP to the
White House this fall.
Bush said he could attract the inde
pendents and Democrats whose votes
have been going to McCain. And
McCain said “Christian conservatives
all over America” will support him
despite his criticism of Pat Robertson.
McCain, at pains to underscore his
party loyalty, also pledged not to walk
out of the nominating convention this
summer if he wins the popular vote in
the California primary next Tuesday but
loses all 162 delegates in a separately
counted winner-take-all contest.
The format was unusual, with Bush
and Alan Keyes on stage in an auditori
um in the Los Angeles Times building
in California and McCain joining by
satellite from a studio in St. Louis.
Education, foreign policy, death
row executions and gun control also
came up in die wide-ranging debate.
The two men also clashed over
campaign finance reform and Bush’s
speech at Bob Jones University.
Tonight
The Mississippi Delta’s Favorite Son
Big Jack Johnson
This Weekend
Lil Slim
and the Back Alley Blues Band
Lectures by
Gerald Early
Princes Kept the View:
America in the 50s and 60s
7-9 March 2000
7-9 March 206o
7:00 each evening
Great Plains Art
Collection
215 Love Library
University of
Nebraska-Lincoln
Gerald Early will
deliver the annual
Abraham Lincoln
Lectures on March
7, 8, and 9. His
program, “Princes
Kept the View:
America in the 50s
and 60s," will .
feature talks entitled
“Muhammad Ali as
Third World Hero,"
“Sammy Davis Jr. as
establishment
Rebel,” and “The Rise of Black Philadelphia,” a look at
militant political action in Early’s hometown during the
1960s.
Gerald Early is a professor of English and Afro-American
studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Early also
serves as Washington University’s Director of African and
Afro-American Studies and Director of the American Culture
Studies Program. A frequent commentator for National Public
Radio, Early’s books include The Muhammad Ali Reader and
The Culture of Bruising which won the 1994 National Book
Critics Circle Award for criticism.
The talks are free and open to the public and will commence
at 7:00 each evening in the Great Plains Art Collection, 215
Love Library, on the University of Nebraska campus in
Lincoln. A reception and book signing will immediately
follow Thursdays lecture.
Begun in 1995, this annual series aims to remind the citizens of
Lincoln and beyond of the principles that Abraham Lincoln
championed: education, justice, tolerance, and union. Each year the
University of Nebraska Press invites a noted scholar to deliver a series
of lectures, co-sponsored with other University of Nebraska depart
ments. In addition, the press publishes each year’s lectures in a single
volume.
If you wish to receive further information about the
Abraham Lincoln Lecture Series, contact:
University of Nebraska Press
402-472-3581 • pressmail@unl.edu
SPONSORED BY
l N IVI RSI I Y Ol N I BRASKA PRI SS
COM I t,I Ol ARES & SCIENCES
A IRK \ N AMI RICAN N A IRK \N SIl'DIES PROGRAM
DE PAR 1 M I N I Ol HISTORY
