The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that Nebraska’s state college system was not liable for the disappearance of a Peru State student back in 2010.
The parents of Tyler Thomas had sued the Nebraska State College System’s governing board, claiming Peru State failed to protect their daughter, who was 19 at the time of her disappearance. Thomas was declared dead by the state in 2013, but her body has not been recovered, reports the Charlotte Observer.
She disappeared in December 2010 after leaving a party. Authorities say fellow Peru State student, Joshua Keadle, told them he and Thomas had sex in his vehicle that evening. He also claimed he left her at a boat ramp by the Missouri River, and she had threatened to report that he had raped her.
Although Keadle has not been charged in Thomas’ disappearance, a jury found him liable and ordered him to pay the Thomas family $2.6 billion. Keadle is currently serving a 15 to 20 year sentence for the 2008 rape of a 15-year-old.
Court documents reveal that a few weeks before Thomas’ disappearance, Peru State’s director of campus security recommended that Keadle be expelled. In 2010, Keadle was 29, living in a Peru State dorm and had been accused of sexually harassing two female students. Peru State administrators, however, chose to not expel him.
The Nebraska Supreme Court determined on Friday that Keadle’s alleged abduction, rape and murder of Thomas was “not a foreseeable risk.”
