Death in the Dorms

Latasha, her dream was to go to Jackson State.

To be able to go to a HBCU,

it's empowering.

20-year-old Latasha Norman was last seen

leaving a class at Jackson State University.

- Sometimes I feel like if I had answered my phone,

I possibly could have prevented something.

She just disappeared.

- You're supposed to feel safe when you're off to college.

And for that to happen,

you know, everyone was in fear.

Because it had happened on a Black college campus,

they draw even more attention.

That's the first time we knew that an incident had happened.

- Murder. - It was murder!

Man, it looks so lifelike.

All the memories just--

All these are her trophies.

- And this right here is when she was ten years old.

She was a Girl Scout.

And I kept it.

Latasha Norman is my stepdaughter,

but I consider her as my daughter

because I raised her from a child.

She was the only daughter I had.

And I was very proud of her.

Every picture we have,

she always have that smile on her face.

You never seen her angry.

That's the type of person Latasha Norman was.

Latasha was born April 21, 1987,

here in Greenville, Mississippi.

We have a huge family, a very close-knit family.

I am ten years older than her,

so she was more like my little sister.

When we were younger,

she started out wanting to be a teacher

because we played teachers a lot.

But as Tasha got older, she switched to accounting.

And I think that had a lot to do with following

behind Kesha's footsteps.

I tell her,

whatever you do, don't ever give up.

Do your best in everything you do

because you can always go up higher.

And as she grew up, she did.

She did her best.

She didn't settle for less.

In high school, at first, she was kind of shy.

Latasha always followed in my footsteps.

I played the flute. Tasha played the flute.

I was a majorette. Tasha was a majorette.

I was on the dance line. Tasha was on the dance line.

After she became a majorette,

she really came out of her shell.

She was that beacon of light

that when she smiled, you smiled.

She had that caring heart.

There was nothing you couldn't ask Latasha

to do for you that she wouldn't do.

- Latasha, her dream was to go to Jackson State.

And their name was known at Jackson State, the Normans.

My father played football at Jackson State.

My uncles played football at Jackson State.

One of my uncles even went pro playing professional football.

I knew that she wouldn't break the family tradition.

I would tease her.

I would call her Ms. Jackson State.

She had no problem being admitted there.

Jackson State is an HBCU,

which is a historically Black college

or university, founded in 1877.

So very long time ago, about 150 years.

I'm Alivia Welch.

I was the managing editor for The Blue and White Flash,

the student-led publication for the university.

It's very humbling to be able to go to a HBCU,

considering that many, many years ago,

the people who fought for us to have an HBCU

weren't allowed to go to college.

This being something that was made for us, it's exciting.

It's empowering.

I think that's one of the reasons

that a lot of students come here

generation after generation.

- A big part of J-Setting is stepping,

part of the culture here at JSU.

- Jackson State, it's a place where you can feel home.

You're like family there.

We call each other the Tiger family,

and we're alumni.

We're just proud of our dear old college home.

- A lot of prominent people in the community

went to Jackson State and graduated.

- Jackson is approximately an hour and a half

from Greenville.

- Greenville, Mississippi, is in what's called

the Mississippi Delta.

And it's a very impoverished

It may be the most impoverished

There's not a lot of economic opportunities there.

A lot of people from the Delta come to Jackson

to build their careers

because you have to get out of the Delta

to really rise up and do something.

On Orientation Day, after we had moved her in,

I know she was ready for us to go,

but my wife wasn't ready to go.

She wanted to mop.

She wanted to wipe everything down.

She wanted to make the bed.

That was her excuse to linger around, you know?

My wife had had a child

before she graduated from high school.

She had to work.

Latasha was living her dream,

and it was almost like

my wife was living her dream through Latasha.

Latasha was getting the opportunity

to do a lot of things that my wife

never had the opportunity to do.

So we encouraged Tasha to excel.

In her senior year in high school,

she dated a guy older than Latasha.

Stanley was finished with high school,

and he wasn't, you know, in college or anything.

He bought a life-size teddy bear

and gave it to her,

and I think he stole her heart that way.

When Latasha decided to go to Jackson State,

she encouraged Stanley to go.

I think she wanted to make something out of him.

And so she helped him get into school down there.

And she was taking up accounting,

and he was taking up criminal justice.

I think Tasha just really pushed him

to, like, his full potential

in a lot of areas, including family, including school,

just different things in his life.

Latasha was extremely excited to be in college.

She was excited to be on Jackson State campus.

She was enjoying the campus life.

She didn't go out much as far as she would tell me.

You know?

Latasha had plans for her and Kesha

to open up an accounting firm back home

once she finished college.

She kept her grades up.

She kept on being on the dean's list

at Jackson State University.

She kept on working.

She kept on, you know, doing her.

- She was thriving like a peacock.

In the fall of 2007,

her and Stanley had went their separate ways.

Stanley had moved down,

and he was dating someone else.

Latasha started dating another guy.

His name was Marquis.

They seem to be getting along pretty well.

He looked out for her.

There was times when she was having problems with her car,

and he was there.

- At this point in life, I would say that she was happy.

She wanted us to meet Marquis.

And so he brought her home to watch her baby brother

play in the ball game the 10th of November,

which seemed to be all right.

But they went back that night.

And that was the last time we saw her alive.

The day after

we had gotten a chance to meet Marquis,

Latasha called me.

I can tell by the tone of her voice

that something wasn't right.

But when she called, I was busy at the time.

And so I told her I would give her a call back

once I leave my meeting.

I called her the next day, and I didn't get an answer.

- Every night, my wife would talk Latasha back to her dorm.

This particular night, she couldn't get Latasha.

When we woke up November 14, 2007,

the phone rang.

It was her new boyfriend on the phone

because my wife had called him and asked him,

had he seen Tasha?

And he said he hadn't seen her since the night before.

And she handed me the phone, and I talked to him.

And he told me that her car was on campus

and she was missing.

He didn't know where she was.

Immediately, I told my wife, "Get dressed.

"Let's go.

Something ain't right."