Police detail hazing shown on videos from NC State's Sigma Nu fraternity

Jane Winik Sartwell, The News & Observer (Raleigh) on Nov 5, 2026

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RALEIGH, N.C. — “People’s lives are in serious danger at the Sigma Nu house. 6 people have been hospitalized.”

This anonymous report was received by NC State University police on Sept. 15. Less than two hours later, another report about the Sigma Nu fraternity came in, university police said in a search warrant for the Sigma Nu house executed Oct. 30 and made public Thursday.

“Pledges got slapped, kicked, and burned,” the anonymous report reads, as detailed in search warrants. “They were forced to eat each other’s vomit and also eat cigs, dip, expired milk, and a ton of alcohol like handles of vodka and a keg of beer. Active brothers hired sex workers to come as well. Brothers were high on cocaine and the head pledge master was high on crack cocaine while hazing the pledges.”

Later that night, a final anonymous report arrived. University police detective T.J. Ouellette, who led the probe, said in the warrant these reports may have been made by current or former Sigma Nu pledges.

Pledges were being told they would be killed if they dropped the fraternity, the report said, according to search warrants. Pledges were forced to run through broken glass, it alleged. One’s shoulder got dislocated. Multiple required IV fluids. The students were being told to lie to doctors about the cause of their injuries.

“Pledges reporting that they are scared for their lives,” the anonymous report said.

On Friday, Oct. 30, police searched NC State’s Sigma Nu fraternity house amid a criminal investigation into the alleged hazing at the Raleigh university’s oldest fraternity. The brotherhood is currently suspended from campus. Police seized cellphones, laptops, drug paraphernalia, pill bottles, a “white powdery substance in a plastic baggie,” marijuana, and more from the house.

Police found video evidence on the phone of a Sigma Nu leader.

A Sept. 26 video described in the search warrants shows a pledge in a plank position on the floor, with a “white powdery substance” in front of his face. A fraternity brother is kicking him in the ribs.

In another video, a pledge is vomiting onto two people who are lying on the floor of the Sigma Nu bathroom, the search warrants say. Someone off camera is telling him to vomit into their mouths. He complies. That video is from Feb. 13.

Sigma Nu members are seen cutting and snorting cocaine inside the Sigma Nu house, the warrants say. Those videos are from March 15 and Oct. 17. Two “unclothed female subjects, who appear to be performing in an adult entertainment capacity” are hitting one another with an unidentified object, the warrants say. That video is from Sept. 4.

Police found more videos on the phone of a different Sigma Nu leader, they said in the warrants. Here’s how those videos are described:

—A pledge is vomiting on another person lying inside a metal bathtub — who is already “covered in a substantial amount of vomit prior to the additional vomiting depicted in the recording.” That video is from March 26. A pledge is told to consume excessive amounts of milk to make himself throw up. He does so, onto another person inside the metal bathtub. That video is from April 21.

—A person is inhaling nitrous oxide, then “yelling loudly in an uncontrolled manner.” That video is from March 2. The same drug is used while a pledge is being forced to maintain a wall sit. That video is from Sept. 17.

In early September, warrants say, police responded to a fire alarm at the Sigma Nu house, where they found a charred floor, burned matches, charred cardboard, a puzzle box and puzzle pieces strewn across the floor, and a grill in the hallway. A Sigma Nu pledge told the university on Sept. 17 he and the other pledges were forced to solve a puzzle in the dark with only matches, according to the warrants. Police say they found evidence of a deliberate effort by fraternity members to conceal the fact that a pledge was struggling to breathe during the challenge.

The school said in a statement emailed to The News & Observer that it does not tolerate hazing.

“Upon being made aware of hazing allegations against Sigma Nu Fraternity, NC State University placed the fraternity on interim suspension pending an investigation into the allegations. In addition, the NC State University Police Department began conducting a separate criminal investigation,” the statement reads.

“The NC State University Police Department, with assistance from partner law enforcement agencies, executed search warrants on several Sigma Nu member phones and at the Sigma Nu fraternity house as part of the ongoing criminal investigation,” the statement continues. “While those warrants are now public, as this is an ongoing criminal investigation, we are unable to provide further comments at this time.”

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(Twumasi Duah-Mensah, Faith Wardwell, Nolan Wilkinson, and Esther Frances contributed reporting.)

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