After a three-month investigation into who placed racist notes around the men's basketball offices, the Ball State University police department announced Thursday it was closing the case even though it was unable to find out who did it.
Tony Proudfoot, associate vice president for marketing and communications, said all available leads in the case were exhausted and new evidence will be needed to find the source of the notes.
"We're really asking for anyone with information and are encouraging them to notify us," Proudfoot said. "We would like to have an identification on this deplorable act, and new information would help."
On June 24, a total of seven notes containing racial slurs were found in Thompson's office and in the offices of Thompson's three assistant coaches. At that time, Thompson was the only Ball State black head coach and two of the three assistant coaches were also black.
The four coaches who received racists notes are no longer at Ball State. In July, Thompson resigned, and the three assistant coaches were released after Billy Taylor was named the new head coach.
Tom Collins, Ball State director of intercollegiate athletics, and Matthew Keiser, Thompson's lawyer, were unavailable for comment following Thursday's announcement.
In a statement Thursday, Gene Burton, director of Public Safety, said unusable fingerprints were found after the notes underwent three fingerprint tests conducted at two police agencies. He said more than 30 people were interviewed during the investigation, but no viable leads had surfaced. The Indiana State Police reviewed all steps the campus police took during the investigation and agreed with the decision to close the case, Burton said.
Burton declined to comment further on the situation, and referred questions regarding the investigation to Sgt. Rhonda Clark, who headed the case. Phone calls to Clark were not returned.
At the time it launched the police investigation, Ball State also announced it would conduct a climate assessment of the athletic department's work environment. The results of the assessment are to be released on or before Dec. 1. Proudfoot said he didn't want to speculate how that investigation could be affected by the closing of the case.
He also said the university is hoping new evidence will be presented so the case can reopen and anyone who has any information should contact the Ball State police.
"We would like to identify who did this, and probably the best way to do this is to get more information," Proudfoot said.
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