Last month, Johnny and Brenda Nicholas sued four officials of the Colorado School of Mines in federal court in Denver. The suit accused the four — the chief of police and a detective with campus police, the dean of students and the director of student life — of deliberately covering up a homicide.
Rio's friends and family describe him as a high-achieving Eagle Scout with a mischievous streak who liked the outdoors and was popular with the girls. His father said he had a "Top Gun" kind of personality, and more than one person likened him to Elvis Presley. Photos showing his high cheekbones and clear, slate-blue eyes lend credence to the comparison.
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"The guy was just absolutely stellar when it came to everything," said Jimmy Snyder, a fellow freshman at the college who joined Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity when Rio did. "He's going to an engineering school on a scholarship, he gets good grades, he's going to play two varsity sports. And at the end of the day, the kid looks like Elvis and the girls just drool all over him."
Johnny and Brenda said they heard for months after Rio died about things he had done for people, like making new students feel welcome at the high school.
"I couldn't be prouder of my son for the way he conducted himself in life, and the way he was regarded by others for his kindness," Johnny said.
Johnny said he knew his son, the oldest of three boys, drank beer occasionally and that he may have made mistakes.
"Rio wasn't an angel," he said. "I'm not going to tell you that. He was just a very well-rounded, healthy kid with exceptional talent."
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"I remember it came our senior year, and we were talking, and he had just gotten his letter of acceptance to the Colorado School of Mines, and he changed in an instant," Gale said. "You could tell he was done goofing off."
That fit with the memory of some of Rio's friends in Colorado. Members of the fraternity Rio joined early in his freshman year said they had no indication of any kind from Rio that he had any involvement with drugs, which they said weren't tolerated in the fraternity.
"It didn't make sense," said Josh Maida, who was Rio's big brother and the fraternity president at the time. "Rio was not that kind of guy. There's no way he was."
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Rio was found by a roommate on Dec. 6, 2001, around 5:15 a.m., unconscious, in the shower of the Weaver Towers dormitory. The Jefferson County coroner found he died of "cocaine toxicity," and toxicology reports found cocaine in Rio's body. There was a single needle mark on his body, according to the lawsuit, but not the statement by the university, which doesn't address that question.
What happened and why? Maybe we will never know...
