Bates College to award diploma to slain student

LEWISTON – Bates College senior Morgan McDuffee was stabbed to death March 3, less than four months before his graduation. But he will receive his diploma at Monday’s commencement ceremony. Bates has agreed to award McDuffee’s diploma because he had already completed the required courses for an economics degree and had handed in his senior thesis.

McDuffee’s girlfriend, Suzanna Andrew, a junior at Bates, will probably accept McDuffee’s diploma for him. McDuffee’s mother, Lisa Freeman of Peterborough, N.H., said she also plans to attend the ceremony, but it wasn’t easy to decide to go.

The graduation was supposed to be one of the happiest days of Freeman’s life, the day she would watch her son receive his hard-earned diploma. Instead, it is sure to be one of the most difficult. “I’m in a cloud,” she said. “I don’t know how I’m going to recreate a life without him.”

McDuffee was stabbed during an early morning fight near the college between fellow Bates students and a group of local men. It was the first murder of a Bates student in the school’s 147-year history. Brandon Thongsavanh, 19, has been charged with murder.

Freeman and Andrew said they will always remember McDuffee as a generous, thoughtful man who was always giving a helping hand. “He touched so many people’s lives in such a unique way,” said Andrew, who was with McDuffee when he was killed. “I had an entire lifetime to look forward to with Morgan. He cannot be replaced.”

Freeman said she still has a hard time believing her son is gone. “The other day, I woke up and, for a brief moment, I felt like it was years ago and none of this had happened,” Freeman said. “Then it hit me.”