WFU police view confiscated video, identify students secretly taped

The women appear on a videotape provided to Wake Forest investigators by Town of Chapel Hill police.

Police in Chapel Hill told Wake Forest officers that the videotape was among other tapes confiscated during an investigation of a man charged with peeping into a sorority house in Chapel Hill. He is accused of using a video camera while peeping into the house. Identified as John Thomas Witt of Person County, the man was arrested last year and is free on bail.

Wake Forest police officers said they were contacted because Chapel Hill officers suspected that one of the confiscated videos was taped secretly at Wake Forest by the accused man.

After seeing the video last week, Wake Forest police have identified and met with five women who were taped without their knowledge in a residence hall. Hiding outside the residence hall at night, someone held a video camera directed at students’ windows on the ground floor. Police said the taping occurred in February of 2001.

In two rooms, a total of three students were taped while changing clothes. The students had partially closed their window blinds at that time, but someone was still able to hold the camera in a way to tape them.

Wake Forest police are continuing to investigate the case. They are attempting to determine whether one other woman on the tape might be a Wake Forest student. At this point, no charges have been filed by Wake Forest police.

Meanwhile, Wake Forest police have said the case is an extraordinary one at Wake Forest. They do not recall any similar incident of someone secretly videotaping students in their campus residence.

Wake Forest police are encouraging students to completely close window blinds before dressing and to keep ground floor windows locked. As always, they are recommending anyone who observes suspicious or unusual activity on campus to immediately contact Wake Forest police.