Authorities have released the name of a college student who was found beaten to death inside her dormitory room at a western New York college. WAMC's Dave Lucas reports.
Officials at the State University of New York College at Brockport say 18-year-old Alexandra Kogut of New Hartford was a freshman majoring in communication.
The Monroe County Sheriff's Office says her body was found shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday in her dorm room at SUNY Brockport, 15 miles west of Rochester. About an hour later, police arrested her boyfriend at a Thruway rest stop near Syracuse. Authorities have charged 21-year-old Clayton Whittemore of New Hartford with second-degree murder.
Whittemore is enrolled at Utica College. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge and is being held without bail in the Monroe County Jail.
Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.