California University Probes Fraternity In Hike Death

LOS ANGELES (AP) - California State University, Northridge, has ordered a fraternity to suspend all its activities while the school investigates the death of a 19-year-old student on a hike.

School spokeswoman Carmen Ramos Chandler tells the Los Angeles Times that an administrative probe of Pi Kappa Phi was launched Wednesday, a day after the death of Aramando Villa.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's statement says Villa was in a group hiking off Big Tujunga Canyon Road and passed out along the trail after they apparently ran out of water. The statement says homicide detectives believe the death was accidental and possibly the result of heat stroke.

Villa was heading into his second year at Cal State Northridge and his aunt Maria Casteneda tells KABC-TV he was trying to get into the fraternity.

Pi Kappa Phi's national office says it is fully participating with the investigation.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.