Bryan Randall '88, a three-time captain of the men's basketball team, killed himself and two of his four children last week after losing a custody dispute with his ex-wife.
Friends, teammates and coaches from Randall's years at the College expressed confusion and sorrow at his actions. "He had such a positive attitude and outlook, the thought that he had sank to a level this low was not conceivable," Eugene Sims '89 said.
Randall, who was living in suburban Orlando, Fla., attempted to drown his two-year-old daughter Yana and four-year-old son Regal in a pond on Sept. 13, according to law enforcement officials. Regal was found by fishermen a day later and recovered; his sister drowned.
On Sept. 15, Randall then swerved a car carrying his two older children in front of a moving tractor-trailer.
Randall and his eight-year-old son Bryan were killed, six-year-old Julian has since recovered.
Local police and friends theorized that Randall's increasingly troubled family life spurred, in large part, what authorities called "a murder-suicide." Randall and his estranged wife Lisa had filed for divorce last May, and she received a restraining order against him a few weeks ago.
In a handwritten note found in his crashed automobile, Randall wrote that he "would not allow those beautiful children to grow up in the manner in which [his wife] had raised them."
Randall was also reportedly having difficulty finding work.
"He got caught up in layoffs involving WorldCom. After he moved to Orlando, the job market wasn't quite as good as he anticipated and I think that got him down a little bit," said Sims, who described himself as one of Randall's closest friends.
"Everything we have seen thus far indicates that it was a domestic situation -- that he was worried about his children and on top of that he was unemployed," Lake Mary police chief Richard Beary told The Dartmouth.
As an undergraduate at Dartmouth, Randall was a standout athlete, lauded by then-assistant coach Dave Faucher as "a nice person and one of the best players ever to wear the green."
In addition to guiding the basketball team through three seasons, Randall won Ivy League rookie of the year in 1985 and was named first-team all-Ivy in 1988. He still holds the College record for all-time assists, with 488 in 98 games.
College teammates emphasized Randall's strong leadership qualities as largely responsible for the triumphs of the men's basketball program. Led by Randall, the team achieved a winning record in the '86-'87 and '87-'88 seasons, breaking a seven-year-long stretch of losing seasons.
"You wanted to follow after him," Sims said. "We were successful because Bryan was driven to compete against the best."
Randall had maintained interest in the College's basketball program after graduation, returning to Hanover occasionally to watch the men's team play and to take part in alumni games.
Faucher, now the head coach of men's basketball, recalled seeing Randall on campus several years ago.
"He came back a couple years ago with his family and the impression we were under, and I'm talking about his close friends, was that he was doing fine," Faucher said.
Friends of Randall universally expressed shock at the circumstances of his death -- "he didn't even have a temper," Faucher said.
"I don't know anybody that didn't like him," Sims said. "I know it doesn't seem like that, but the guy that ended wasn't the guy that I knew."
