When Samantha Spady fell asleep in the early hours of Sept. 5 in a Colorado State University fraternity house, it was after nearly 12 hours of drinking, authorities said Friday.

The Beatrice teen, a CSU sophomore studying business administration, was so drunk she could not walk by herself, according to a Fort Collins (Colo.) Police Department statement.

Throughout the night of Sept. 4 and into the next morning, she steadily drank beer and had shots of vodka and tequila, pushing her blood-alcohol content to more than five times the legal limit to drive.

She died sometime in the mid-morning of Sept. 5, Larimer County Deputy Coroner Sam Eggleston said. Her body was discovered at 6:22 that evening by a Sigma Pi Fraternity member who was giving his mother a tour of the house.

A blood-alcohol test from an autopsy the day after her death showed a blood-alcohol content of 0.436 percent.

It's not surprising, Eggleston said, that 19-year-old Spady had died.

"A point-four is definitely typically fatal for people who aren't career alcoholics," he said.

Friday, two days after citing 19 people on related alcohol violations, Fort Collins police released a timeline outlining the last hours of Spady's life:

* About 6 p.m. Sept. 4 , Spady arrived with a friend at a party, where she watched the CSU-Colorado football game and drank at least two beers and two shots. 

* At 8 p.m., she arrived at another party, where she continued to drink beer. 

* After the game, she and her friend left the party in Spady's car, in search of an ATM. Spady hit a median, blowing out both driver's side tires. At 11:10 p.m., friends picked them up. 

* At midnight, Spady arrived at another party, where she had at least four beers and may have had shots of vodka and played drinking games. 

* At 2 a.m., Spady and friends went to the Sigma Pi house, where they drank beer. Between seven and 10 people then drank at least one bottle of vanilla vodka.

* At 5:30 a.m., when Spady was intoxicated to the point of being unable to walk or even stand up, two people helped her into the lounge, where she fell asleep.

She died sometime in the next few hours, Eggleston said.

Because she did not immediately die, he said, her body had probably metabolized some of the alcohol she had consumed that night. At some point, he said, her blood-alcohol content was likely higher than 0.436 percent.

A person with a level of 0.2 percent, he said, appears obviously drunk, he said.

A blood-alcohol content of 0.3, he said, is life-threatening. A level as high as Spady's is almost always fatal.

Rita Davis, a Fort Collins police spokeswoman, said that although Spady's high blood-alcohol content was unusual, her behavior wasn't.

"It's a pretty typical scene on many college campuses across the United States," Davis said.

It's unclear whether Spady's behavior was typical for her, however. Attempts to reach the Spady family on Friday were unsuccessful.

Otto Schultz, coordinator of the Lancaster County Substance Abuse Action Coalition, said Spady's high blood-alcohol content could have indicated a high tolerance — or a night of fast, hard drinking.

"(College students) drink stupidly, they drink naively," he said. "I couldn't automatically conclude that just because she was able to hold that much alcohol that she was alcohol dependent."

Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.

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