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campus full of students. we were really scared. a mysterious tweet. what do you think it meant? i don t exactly know. reporter: a terrifying phone call: my son just called me and told me he killed somebody. reporter: and a terrible truth. i didn t know how. i didn t know who. i didn t know anything. i just know she was gone. reporter: i m lester holt and this is dateline. here s andrea canning with after midnight. 3 f2 medianoche. days at the beach come to an end, students flood back to college. it s the same scene year after year, at campus after campus. and every year, there s that new bunch, the freshmen. i was nervous for classes the first day because, you know, i m that scared little freshman. reporter: all those worries, all those questions. do i really have to go to these classes? and what s this teacher like? and all that kind of stuff. reporter: they re not quite adults, they re not quite teens. but now, suddenly, they re on their own. ....
campus full of students. we were really scared. a mysterious tweet. what do you think it meant? i don t exactly know. reporter: a terrifying phone call: my son just called me and told me he killed somebody. reporter: and a terrible truth. i didn t know how. i didn t know who. i didn t know anything. i just know she was gone. reporter: i m lester holt and this is dateline. here s andrea canning with after midnight. 3 f2 medianoche. days at the beach come to an end, students flood back to college. it s the same scene year after year, at campus after campus. and every year, there s that new bunch, the freshmen. i was nervous for classes the first day because, you know, i m that scared little freshman. reporter: all those worries, all those questions. do i really have to go to these classes? and what s this teacher like? and all that kind of stuff. reporter: they re not quite adults, they re not quite teens. but now, suddenly, they re on their own. ....
we were really scared. a mysterious tweet. what do you think it meant? i don t exactly know. reporter: a terrifying phone call: my son just called me and told me he killed somebody. reporter: and a terrible truth. i didn t know how. i didn t know who. i didn t know anything. i just know she was gone. reporter: i m lester holt and this is dateline. here s andrea canning with after midnight. 3 f2 medianoche. days at the beach come to an end, students flood back to college. it s the same scene year after year, at campus after campus. and every year, there s that new bunch, the freshmen. i was nervous for classes the first day because, you know, i m that scared little freshman. reporter: all those worries, all those questions. do i really have to g these classes? and what s this teacher like? and all that kind of stuff. reporter: they re not quite adults, they re not quite teens. but now, suddenly, they re on their own. i mean, leaving home for t ....
as soon as i met her, i knew we were the perfect match for each other. reporter: alex kogut and samantha turner met within days of arriving on campus, besties from the beginning. reporter: you really clicked with alex. i did. reporter: right away. i did right away. reporter: why did you like her so much right away? i liked her because i could act so funny in front of her and i could act myself. if i had a problem, she was always there for me. reporter: by late september, alex and samantha were inseparable, swapping clothes and confidences. sounds almost like you were sisters. pretty much. every second i saw her, we would have fun and laugh together. every possible thing just made our relationship grow stronger. reporter: but on friday, september 28th, they were going off in different directions. samantha was heading home to see her family. alex was staying on campus, counting the hours until her longtime boyfriend arrived for a weekend visit. that ....
i was nervous for classes the first day because, you know, i m that scared little freshman. reporter: all those worries, all those questions. do i really have to go to these classes? and what s this teacher like? and all that kind of stuff. reporter: they re not quite adults, they re not quite teens. but now, suddenly, they re on their own. i mean, leaving home for the first time can be scary. scary for the kids. for their parents, too. every mom has that, my baby s reporter: it s hard. going to college, yes. reporter: most of the time, kids sail through the experience. they make new friends, date new people. and move on. but there are others who are not so lucky. they are the victims of a troubling trend that s caught the nation s attention. dating violence. it could happen to anyone s daughter? anyone. this could happen to anyone. reporter: it was late september, 2012. the college at brockport, a state school in western new york, was well i ....