Murdered College Student Left Ominous Last Tweet
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Facebook(NEW YORK) — Even though murdered college freshman Alexandra Kogut was starting college in a different town from her older boyfriend, the two kept in touch with playful Twitter messages anticipating each others’ visits.
On Sept. 2, Clayton Whittemore, a 21-year-old student at Utica College, tweeted at his girlfriend: “Saturday can’t come sooner enough.”
“So excited for @Whittemore21 to come to Brockport Saturday and bring me half moons,” Kogut wrote in September, according to the Utica Observer Dispatch. Her account has since been taken down.
But one ominous last Tweet suggests something went wrong during their reunion very early Saturday morning, just hours before Whittemore allegedly beat Kogut to death.
“Should’ve known,” she wrote at 12:13 a.m.
Prosecutors believe the popular freshman at the State University of New York Brockport campus was murdered early Saturday morning by Clayton Whittemore, 21, who had apparently been visiting for the weekend.
Whittemore, of New Hartford, pleaded not guilty to second degree murder charges on Saturday.
Authorities said Kogut’s mother became concerned when her daughter did not answer her phone and requested campus police perform a welfare check.
During that check, campus police found the communications major dead in her room at McLean Hall early Saturday morning. She appeared to have suffered severe trauma to her upper body, said Robert Kehoe of the Brockport Campus Police Department.
Authorities caught up with Whittemore, who attends Utica College, at a service station in the town of Dewitt, about 110 miles east of Brockport early Saturday morning.
Students and staff were notified of the death via email, social media and a message posted on the school’s website.
Kogut’s family released a statement thanking the community for their support and asking for privacy during their time of grief.
Whittemore remains in the custody of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. He is due back in court for a preliminary hearing Thursday afternoon.
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