COLUMN: Flier in Brooks Hall a fading reminder of a slain Chippewa
Fliers, including one asking for information regarding the death of former Central Michigan University student Ryan Tsatsos, hang on a bulletin board in Brooks Hall on the campus of Central Michigan University on April 4, 2017. Tsatsos was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Nov. 1, 2015, on Crawford Road in Mount Pleasant.
A flier on a bulletin board in Brooks Hall caught my eye the other day.
Partially tucked under subleasing ads and RSO fliers was someone’s plea for help.
A phone number, 1-800-SPEAK UP, caught my eye at the top of the page. “Cash Reward UP TO $2,500,” was written below it.
The face on the page was that of Ryan Tsatsos, a former Central Michigan University student killed by a hit-and-run driver on Nov. 1, 2015, on Crawford Road in Mount Pleasant.
His killer has not been brought to justice more than a year after the incident.
As I stood there thinking, I couldn’t believe a flier on a tucked-away bulletin board in a grungy science hall was what was left of this kid's story. Covered up by a bunch of other fliers, was the face of a dead young man, pictured wearing his high school football uniform. Smiling and alive.
I thought about Ryan and wondered if I had ever played sports against him as a kid. He went to Warren De LeSalle. I went to Dearborn Divine Child. Both are in the Detroit Catholic League. I thought about how I, like Ryan and so many other CMU students, celebrated Halloween that night. I remembered waking up to the news of his death.
I thought about the person who put the flier up.
Maybe it was the CMU or Mount Pleasant Police Department, a student group or Crime Stoppers that did it. Maybe it was his friends or family. Maybe even his parents.
I started to think about Ryan's mother.
I remembered the public statement she made later that month. Her frail hands shook as she fought back tears before she could speak. She said her teenage son was finally coming around after the passing of his older brother.
She said the family "was finally beginning to see the sparkle in (Ryan's) eye and hear the laughter in his voice."
Now, her two boys are dead.
I thought about the pain it must be to raise children, like planting annuals you hope to sit back and enjoy for the rest of your life, but have them ripped out of the Earth.
Mrs. Tsatsos and her husband have to keep on living without their children. That’s their reality.
This led me to think about the person who made that the Tsatsos’ reality. The person who killed Ryan. The person who refuses to take responsibility for their crime.
I wondered if they think about that night every day or if they’ve somehow expelled the memory from their conscious.
I couldn’t live with it.
I wondered if they think about Ryan's mother, or their own mother.
Maybe they walk past this flier tucked into the bulletin board in Brooks Hall or other fliers like it around campus every day.
I thought about the law enforcement agencies working on this case. I considered the amount of work cut out for them to find Ryan’s killer.
The Michigan State Police Department has closed more than 66 tips that were called in by the public, but none have led to the person who fled after hitting Tsatsos.
There's only so many straws they can pull. As time goes on, the case only gets harder to solve.
That's when I realized the symbolism of this flier I had been staring at for nearly five minutes.
As time goes on, the plea to find Ryan’s killer continues to get covered up by other fliers. The public outcry to find his killer becomes more and more quiet. Our community's memory of this tragedy fades away.
The person who did this might never be found.
But that doesn’t mean we should let Ryan's memory fade to the bottom of the bulletin board.
The CMU community should remember his death. We should remember no pedestrian accommodations have been made to the road he died on, Crawford Road, that dark Halloween night.
We can never forget someone killed our fellow Chippewa and got away with it.
