Former UNCW student Curtis Dixon died December 9, 2004 from injuries sustained by an attempted suicide before standing trial for the murder of former UNCW student Jessica Faulkner.

Dixon apparently attempted suicide at the Polk Youth Institute where he broke away from guards and jumped head-first, falling three stories, from a staircase.

Dixon was in critical condition before he was removed from life support, and died shortly after.

Since Dixon’s death, Chancellor DePaolo has released a statement regarding the details of the Jessica Faulkner case that were previously unavailable due to federal privacy laws.

DePaolo explains how Dixon was admitted to UNCW despite inaccuracies in his application and transcripts.

James Dixon, Curtis Dixon’s father and Executive Assistant to the Chancellor at UNC Charlotte, faxed Dixon’s transcripts to Special Assistant to former Chancellor Leutze, Mark Lanier.

All transcripts indicated that Curtis had been home schooled for his entire high school career and achieved a 1070 on his SAT’s.

Only after Faulkner’s slaying did authorities begin to discover the inaccuracies in these documents.

After an investigation it become apparent that not only had Dixon not been home schooled for his entire high school career but he also attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and had been convicted of a misdemeanor larceny – all of which were falsified on his admissions documents.

Chancellor DePaolo has addressed the problem about inaccuracies in admissions applications.

“As a result of the information we obtained about the discrepancies in Curtis Dixon’s admissions application, I asked for a review of our admissions procedures and decided to implement immediately an additional question designed to explain any gaps in an applicant’s academic history.” DePaolo explains.

She adds, “I also established two campus task forces to review education and safety at UNCW.”

The campus task forces provide recommendations to help establish accuracy and honesty on all applicants’ admissions documents by implementing information-checking and information-sharing between educational institutes.

“The only consolation I can bring from this catastrophe is to make UNCW better informed about issues such as stalking, potentially dangerous relationships, and campus safety. Not even the best background checks can entirely and utterly eliminate the risk of a potentially dangerous student being enrolled. But becoming a model for campus safety is what we must aim for, to bring good from the tragedy of young lives cut so tragically short”, said DePaolo.

For a timeline of events surrounding Curtis Dixon and Jessica Faulkner, click here.