UT parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a fraternity on Thursday, alleging hazing and illegal substances from the fraternity drove their son into a mental health crisis that led him to take his own life in January 2024, according to the lawsuit.
Sawyer Lee Updike joined the Texas Alpha Nu chapter of Sigma Chi in 2023, according to the news release. During his time pledging, he was subject to hazing that included being speared with a fishhook, burned with lit cigarettes and pierced in the hip with a staple gun, according to the lawsuit. Fraternity members also forced him to endure physical beatings, consume dangerous amounts of alcohol, coerce him into using illegal substances and threatened to have sexual relations with his girlfriend if he did not attend a fraternity event, according to the lawsuit.
“This isn’t normal. This is sadistic,” said Ted Lyon, the attorney representing the family, at a press conference on Thursday. “What’s happened here is absolutely outrageous, and we’re going to do something about it.”
On the day Updike took his own life, he first went to the fraternity house and was given cocaine and psilocybin mushrooms, according to the lawsuit. This worsened his “psychological crisis,” and then he drove to a convenience store and took his life by suicide, according to the lawsuit.
The parents are suing Sigma Chi International Fraternity, Alpha Nu Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity at UT, Alpha Nu House Corporation, which owns the fraternity house, and five members of the fraternity. None of the defendants immediately responded to a request for comment.
Sigma Chi had committed hazing violations prior to Updike’s death, according to a University website. In 2022, it was placed on disciplinary probation for alcohol misconduct and hazing new members through “actions intended to demean,” according to the website.
The University sanctioned the chapter with deferred suspension in 2024 after charging them with hazing the class of fall 2024, according to a University website. In May 2025, Sigma Chi International Headquarters closed its UT chapter, according to the website, which tracks hazing violations from the last three years.
The fraternity has since renamed itself “Alpha Nu” from “Sigma Chi,” it announced in a July 2025 social media post.
After Updike’s death in 2024, the chapter published a social media post that announced his death. The post wrote that Updike was a “terrific brother who cared deeply about the chapter.”
“The loss of Sawyer has deeply saddened our chapter, and we are heartbroken by his passing,” the post states. “His laughter, spirit, and camaraderie will forever be etched into our hearts.”
Lyon wrote in the news release that children sent to college should not be subject to violence behind closed doors.
“The case is not only about one young man’s death but about a fraternity system that, when left unchecked, can normalize cruelty and silence those who are harmed until it is too late,” Lyon wrote.
Updike’s mother, Sheryl Roberts-Updike, wrote in the release that she lives with the absence of her son every day. She said what happened to her son was “cruel, senseless and preventable.”
“I want every parent of a college-bound child to understand the risks that can be hidden behind Greek letters and long-standing traditions,” Roberts-Updike wrote. “If speaking out saves even one family from this kind of heartbreak, then Sawyer’s light will continue to shine in this world.”
