MELISSA ‘KATIE’ AUTRYSlain in WKU dorm room

The estate of Melissa “Katie” Autry was awarded $200,000 by the Kentucky Board of Claims, acting on the recommendation made last month by a hearing officer who found Western Kentucky University negligent in connection to Autry’s death in her dorm room.

Autry, 18, of Pellville was raped, stabbed and set on fire on May 4, 2003, in her Hugh Poland Hall room. She died four days later at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

Stephen Soules of Scottsville pleaded guilty to murder and six other charges in connection to her death in 2004 and is serving a life sentence in prison with no possibility of parole. Another man, Lucas Goodrum of Scottsville, was acquitted by a jury in 2005 after being charged in the incident.

The $200,000 award is the maximum amount that the Board of Claims can hand out to Autry’s estate, which is administered by her mother, Donnie Autry, her aunt, Virginia White and her sister, Lisa Autry, according to documents from the case.

“I think (the family) is happy that this is hopefully resolved,” said Ben Crocker, the Bowling Green attorney representing Autry’s estate. “They’ve been through a lot in the past several years and I think they’re happy to have some kind of closure on this.”

The board agreed with claims that WKU was negligent in allowing Soules, who was not enrolled at the university, access to Autry’s room, finding that WKU did not follow security procedures that would have included locking the dorm’s front door, monitoring the front lobby or requiring Soules to sign in at the front desk on the night of the incident.

A hearing was conducted in Bowling Green by an officer for the board of claims, who heard testimony from the night desk clerk on duty at Poland Hall the night of the murder.

Soules did not testify.

Bowling Green attorney Greg Stivers, who represented WKU in the suit, could not be reached for comment, though he said last month that he would consider contesting the hearing officer’s recommendation to award the $200,000 to Autry’s estate.

A wrongful death suit had been filed against the university in Warren Circuit Court in 2003, but the case was moved to the board of claims in 2007, after the Kentucky Supreme Court overturned a ruling by the Kentucky Court of Appeals that the circuit court was the appropriate venue to hear the case.

The matter cannot be heard again by the board of claims, though its decision can be appealed to Warren Circuit Court.