The family of a Texas college freshman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from allegations that fraternity hazing drove him into a mental health crisis that led him to take his own life.

Sawyer Updike, an 18-year-old from Pearland, accepted a bid to pledge the Sigma Chi fraternity through the University of Texas at Austin’s Alpha Nu Chapter in August 2023, according to FOX 7. 

Throughout his time as a member of the chapter’s pledge class, Updike was allegedly subjected to months of “horrific hazing” that ultimately drove him to suicide, the lawsuit states. 

“This was just an outstanding young man,” Ted Lyon, an attorney representing Updike’s family, told Fox News Digital. “He scored 1410 on the SATs. He was a straight A student in high school.”

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The 6-foot-6 freshman had just made the school’s skeet shooting team and “had the whole world ahead of him,” according to Lyon. 

The alleged hazing took place at the Alpha Nu fraternity house in Austin, Lyon said.

“The culture that uses this type of, I call it depraved activity, is not the kind of culture that any major university ought to condone,” Lyon told Fox News Digital.

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According to the lawsuit, Updike was allegedly subjected to various methods of brutal hazing by members of the fraternity. The acts reportedly consisted of spearing a large fishhook through Updike’s leg, puncturing his hip with a staple gun and pressuring him through fear of punishment to ingest illegal substances, such as cocaine, according to FOX 7. 

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges members of the fraternity forced Updike to consume harmful amounts of alcohol, repeatedly burned him with lit cigarettes, and subjected the freshman to physical whippings and beatings, the outlet reported. 

“We have a picture of the kid that stapled them before he did it,” Bill Johnston, an attorney representing the family, told FOX 7. “I mean, again, they were in some sick way, they were proud of it. They were proud enough to record it.”

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The psychological damage from the alleged hazing was noticeable to Updike’s parents when he returned home for holiday break in 2023, according to Lyon. 

“When he came home at Christmas, his mother and father knew something was wrong,” Lyon told Fox News Digital. “He weighed 192 pounds and looked emaciated, but they didn’t really know what it was. They didn’t know that he was being serially hazed and abused.”

The lawsuit reportedly states that Updike’s mental state was already deteriorating when he was provided with cocaine and psilocybin mushrooms on Jan. 16, 2024, the first day of the second semester of Updike’s freshman year, according to FOX 7.

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Shortly after he was allegedly provided drugs, Updike drove to a local gas station parking lot and took his own life. 

“He committed suicide in January 2024 and, of course, the parents wondered why,” Johnston said. “The mother was able to access his phone, talk to some people, and learn that he had been subjected to extreme hazing.” 

While it does not appear Updike personally reported the instances of alleged hazing, at least one complaint regarding the fraternity was lodged with UT that fall semester, FOX 7 reported.

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Following Updike’s death, the university decided to close the Sigma Chi chapter, which had already been placed on deferred suspension due to a separate alleged hazing incident from the previous year, according to FOX 7. Hazing is illegal under Texas law and prohibited by university policy. 

“There’s something wrong frankly with someone that would think this is a rite of passage that can be applied to another young person,” Johnston said, FOX 7 reported. 

The wrongful death lawsuit names Sigma Chi International Fraternity, Alpha Nu Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity at the University of Texas at Austin, the Alpha Nu House Corporation and five fraternity members, according to FOX 7. 

“UT Austin is committed to providing a safe educational environment for everyone and does not tolerate hazing by any group or individual affiliated with the University,” the University of Texas at Austin said in a statement to FOX 7. “All such allegations receive the utmost attention and thorough investigation.”

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The National Sigma Chi Chapter and UT Austin did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

“I live every day with the weight of his absence,” Sawyer’s mother, Sheryl Roberts-Updike, said in a news release, according to FOX 7. “No parent should ever lose a child, and certainly not because of hazing disguised as ‘brotherhood.’ What happened to Sawyer was cruel, senseless, and preventable. It is unbearable to know that a young man with so much promise was put through something so dangerous in the name of belonging.”

The Department of Justice threw its support behind Texas on Monday, arguing the new map the state’s Republican-led legislature approved was not an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

Solicitor General John Sauer, who represents the Trump administration, wrote in an amicus brief that a lower court’s decision to block the map through the 2026 midterms was wrong and that the Supreme Court should intervene and reverse the decision.

“This is not a close case,” Sauer wrote.

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Sauer said the lower court misunderstood what drove the Texas legislature to shift five districts in favor of Republicans. He said the move was not based on race, which could violate federal voting laws and the Constitution.

“There is overwhelming evidence — both direct and circumstantial — of partisan objectives, and any inference that the State inexplicably chose to use racial means is implausible,” Sauer wrote.

Sauer also defended a letter Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon wrote to Texas this year demanding that it address “coalition districts” that favor Democrats, which the challengers to the map have seized on as evidence of race-based motives. Days after the letter, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, added redistricting to the legislature’s agenda, leading to a stunning boycott in which state Democrats temporarily fled the state.

The lower court “misinterpreted the letter’s meaning; and more importantly, the court misunderstood the letter’s significance to the legislature’s adoption of the 2025 map,” Sauer said.

The plaintiffs in the case, who include numerous voting and immigrant rights groups, argued that Dhillon’s letter demanded dismantling the coalition districts and packing Black and Latino voters into other districts.

“The DOJ letter, riddled with legal and factual errors, incorrectly asserted that these districts were ‘unconstitutional coalition districts’ that Texas was required to ‘rectify’ by changing their racial makeup,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote.

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Texas’ mid-cycle redistricting dispute is one of several that have cropped up across the country as President Donald Trump stares down the possibility of losing an acquiescent Republican-led House in 2026. California voted in favor of an eleventh-hour ballot measure that would cancel out the five Republican gains in Texas. Utah’s map has changed in favor of Democrats, Virginia has taken steps to redraw its map and Louisiana’s is pending before the Supreme Court.

The DOJ recently sued Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, over California’s redistricting efforts, arguing that unlike in Texas, those were unconstitutionally race-based.

Texas has asked the Supreme Court to pause the three-judge panel’s ruling in the Western District of Texas that found 2-1 last week that race was too much of a factor in its redraw. 

“This summer, the Texas Legislature did what legislatures do: politics,” Texas’ attorneys argued in their request, disputing all notions that the redistricting process used race as a factor.

In a lengthy and wild tirade, Judge Jerry Brown, a Reagan appointee and the lone dissenter, called the three-judge panel’s decision the “most blatant exercise of judicial activism” he had ever seen and a work of “fiction.”

Justice Samuel Alito has administratively paused the panel’s ruling, but the Supreme Court could now make a more lasting decision on the map at any time. Texas lawyers have also argued the high court should block the panel’s decision because it interfered with the 2026 midterms, for which candidates were already filing to run based on the new map.

The original winner of the 2025 World’s Strongest Woman competition in Arlington, Texas, was stripped of the title after allegations that the athlete is transgender came to light.

Andrea Thompson, the 2018 winner, stepped down from the podium at the event over the weekend after Jammie Booker won the title.

Thompson came in second place by just one point to Booker in the open women’s category (no weight requirement). A YouTube video from what appears to be Booker’s own channel, dating back to 2017, shows Booker claiming to be “trans.”

A video showed Thompson stepping off the podium appearing to say, “This is bulls—.”

Thompson’s coach, Laurence Shahlaei, told Fox News Digital that Booker “was just disappointed in herself for losing” and was unaware of Booker’s alleged biological sex at the time.

 According to Strongman Archives, Booker had not competed in women’s events prior to this past June. It is unclear whether Booker had previously competed as a man.

After backlash over the previous 48 hours, Official Strongman announced that Booker would be “disqualified,” admitting it was unaware of allegations that Booker was born male. The ruling now gives Thompson her second victory in the competition.

“Had we been aware, or had this been declared at any point before or during the competition, this athlete would not have been permitted to compete in the Woman’s Open category. We are clear – competitors can only compete in the category for the biological sex recorded at birth,” Official Strongman said in an announcement Tuesday. “Official Strongman is inclusive and proud to run events which do not discriminate against athletes based on personal characteristics. Any athlete is welcome. But it is our responsibility to ensure fairness and ensure athletes are assigned to men or women’s categories based on whether they are recorded as male or female at birth.”

Thompson shared a post from her coach, Laurence Shahlaei, congratulating her on “winning” the event. Shahlaei made the post on Monday, one day after the event. Shahlaei told Fox News Digital just prior to Strongman’s announcement that he had been told Thompson would be crowned the champion and that an official announcement would be made.

“This win hasn’t come without controversy, but I want to make it very clear that while I support and applaud people for being who they want to be, sport is sport and the women’s classes exist for a reason,” Shahlaei wrote.

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Thompson finished third in 2019 and second in 2022 at the same competition. She won the Masters World’s Strongest Woman event, reserved for women 40 years or older. 

Booker has competed in three events this year, winning the first back in June and coming in second in the North America’s Strongest Woman. On Sept. 14, Booker began a GoFundMe for help get money to compete in the competition.

“After taking 1st in the Rainier Classic regional (and getting my pro card) and 2nd at the North America’s Strongest Woman competition, I have qualified for the next level of competition at the Official Strongman Games and I have a good chance of reaching the podium at this event as well,” Booker wrote.

“Now comes the difficult task of funding the trip. Registration fees are $285, the flight to Texas will be around $350, and the hotel fees for the 3 day competition and pre competition rules meeting will be $900. I simply cannot afford this on my shoestring planet fitness trainer budget. Winning this competition will open huge doors for my career both as an athlete and as a trainer.”

Strongman said it has attempted to reach out to Booker, “but a response has not been received.” On Monday, Booker posted a video to Instagram thanking numerous people for their assistance in what was originally a victory.

Booker’s TikTok biography reads that Booker, 28, is the “Worlds Strongest Lesbian.” In a post from January, Booker wrote, “no im not a man.”

Booker’s first post on Instagram is a photo posing at a Planet Fitness on July 31, 2022.

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