Dressed as 'wanted,' man breaks into Morrison rooms on Halloween

While Halloween is supposed to be a fun event, Monday proved to be the opposite for some residents of Morrison Residence Hall.

On Tuesday, an Alert Carolina message was sent to students and faculty about a report of break-ins in unlocked rooms in Morrison.

Ceciel Huiberts, an international student from the Netherlands, was a victim of a break-in in the residence hall.

After an evening on Franklin Street, Huiberts and her friends returned to their dorm on the seventh floor around 11 p.m. Around 3 a.m., Huiberts said she heard her door open and the light turned on. A man walked into her room asking if she knew an “Emily.”

“I tried to point out the girls in the suite and point out that there was no necessity to be in the suite because there were no Emilys here,” Huiberts said.

He turned to leave but then turned around and grabbed Huiberts by her chin.

“He still grabbed hold of my chin and said ‘give me a kiss,’” Huiberts said. “I said ‘no’ and then he kind of walked out, just like that.”

Huiberts said she does not believe that he was intoxicated.

“He was literally four inches from my face and I didn’t smell any booze or any weed,” Huiberts said. “He also seemed very aware of what the conversation was about and didn’t seem wary about the situation.”

She said she then walked outside after talking to a neighbor who told Huiberts the same thing had just happened to her. The two girls found the resident adviser on duty and spotted the man on the third floor, Huiberts said.

They caught him and the RA escorted him to the first floor where he ran away. Before fleeing, Huiberts said the man said he lived in Ehringhaus Residence Hall. The RA then filed a report on the incident.

Katie Bartholomew, the assistant director for conduct and crisis management for Housing and Residential Education, said RAs are instructed to provide any support needed to the student.

“Any report we receive, we respond to and involve public safety,” Bartholomew said. “We work together with getting extra support from other organizations to help the student in any way we can.”

He is described by the Alert Carolina message as having short, dark hair and wearing a black-and-yellow striped shirt tucked into jeans, with a “Wanted” sign hung around his neck and fake wounds on his head.

UNC public safety spokesperson Randy Young said recent evidence from the case now states the suspect was wearing a Pablo Escobar costume, not a cowboy costume, as stated in the Alert Carolina message.

“We’re looking at the possibility of publishing suspect photos on the Alert Carolina’s webpage and we will put out social media,” Young said. “We want to make sure that everybody can get a good look and help us identify this individual.”

Huiberts is currently getting counseling at the Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office.

“I just want the guy to get caught. I’ve talked to a lot of other girls in Morrison and they all feel pretty unsafe,” said Huiberts. “My dorm used to be my safe space on campus and now it’s just not anymore.”

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