An investigative report by ESPN says Missouri did not investigate or contact police regarding an alleged sexual assault involving one or more Missouri football players and may have led to the suicide of a Missouri swimmer in 2011. Missouri officials were made aware of the story before it was published by ESPN, and the university has shared an email correspondence with ESPN that took place a day before the story was released. In it Missouri addresses a number of details regarding the report and answers some questions from Outside the Lines in great detail.
Missouri’s email to ESPN expresses a concern for the story being organized and reported with a predetermined narrative suggesting the school should have been more aware of the details that led to Missouri swimmer Sasha Menu Courey committing suicide in 2011. According to the email exchange between the university and sports network, no university official was made aware of a confidential online chat conversation until a search of Menu Courey’s email account was conducted a year after her death at the request of her family. The chat conversation is used as a suggestion Missouri officials should have taken extra measures to protect Menu Courey following an alleged rape.
Missouri also suggests ESPN refused to provide information that supported the investigative report’s findings stating other personnel at Missouri were made aware of the incident.
You can read the full email exchange, provided by Missouri, for much more on the official response by the university to the story published by ESPN.