PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Police and university officials said they are investigating reports that 10 Plymouth State University female students involved in a fatal crash this week were participating in activities related to an unauthorized sorority.

University officials said they were looking into a report that some of the women were blindfolded as part of a “hazing” or induction ceremony. They said that the woman who died in Monday night’s crash, Kelly Nester, 20, was believed to be one of the pledges. Two Maine students were injured.

“If we or the police find there was hazing involved, some of the women may face disciplinary charges,” Dean of Students Tim Keefe told The Citizen in a story published Wednesday. “These are unconfirmed rumors at this point.”

University officials said four of the women had been members of Alpha Sigma Alpha, one of the university’s two authorized sororities, but had left that organization to form their own non-sanctioned sorority, Sigma Kappa Omega.

Nester, a junior from Coventry, R.I., was killed after the Jeep Grand Cherokee went out of control on rain-slicked Route 3, just south of Plymouth about 9:30 p.m. Monday. The other students, including Olivia Lucca, 22, of Manchester, Maine, and Brittany Hilton, 18, of North Berwick, were treated and released from a hospital.

Nester was a passenger in the vehicle that left the roadway, got caught in the gravel embankment and drifted into the side of a ledge, police said. The vehicle landed on its side.

Plymouth Police Capt. Steve Temperino said he does not know why there were 10 students in the vehicle designed to seat five. He said a preliminary investigation showed that neither alcohol nor drugs was a factor.

Temperino said police were investigating reports that the women were participating in activities related to an unauthorized sorority.

“Other than that, I can’t comment,” he said.

The mood at the campus, where Nester was a third-year early childhood studies major, was somber. A funeral Mass for Nester was scheduled for Friday in Rhode Island and a memorial service was planned for Monday at the school.

“This is a parent’s worst nightmare,” said Richard Hage, vice president for student affairs.