Parents Of Murdered College Student Request Lie Detector Tests

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - The parents of a Minnesota college student killed last year want those with him the night he died to take a lie detector test.

Eighteen-year-old Tom Bearson was killed last September, just one month into his first semester at North Dakota State University.

Police are still searching for the person responsible.

The three-day search for Bearson ended six miles from a house party near NDSU, where he was last seen.

But nearly ten months since police say he was killed, there's no arrest.

In a Facebook post published earlier this week, Bearson's girlfriend claims people who were with him the night he was last seen alive refused to take a lie detector test.

The post read in part:

"Just take the test and prove you had nothing to do with Tom's death and prove yourself innocent of any wrongdoing and then move on with your life. But do the right thing and take the test."

By Wednesday night, the post had been shared more than 300 times.

The Bearson family released a statement responding to the social media attention, saying in part:

"It is hard for us to imagine how anyone claiming to be our son's friend would not be willing to do everything necessary to exonerate themselves from any involvement in his death by answering some simple questions and allow law enforcement to move forward and focus on other information."

WCCO spoke to Bearson's family earlier this year.

"We miss him so much," his father, Greg, said. "Our heart is broken."

The family is hoping someone will come forward with information and the truth.

"It's hard to picture it like he's gone," his sister, Maddie Bearson, said in January. "What really gets me is that he was hurt. That's what's hard about it."

No one from the Moorhead Police Department was available for comment regarding the claims that there are people refusing to take lie detector tests in this case.