Marvin 'Alvin' Smith

On June 24, 1997, seventeen-year-old Marvin 'Alvin' Smith, a talented football player being recruited by the University of Nebraska and other Division I programs, was found dead at the bottom of an air shaft at the Cornhusker Hotel (now Embassy Suites) in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Alvin had been attending a camp at the university. His death was ruled accidental, with investigators concluding he had fallen into the air shaft from the roof. However, questions about how a healthy young athlete ended up on a hotel roof in the middle of the night, and whether the fall was truly accidental, have persisted.

Alvin's family and supporters have argued that the investigation was inadequate and that evidence pointed to foul play. The family has questioned why a teenager would go to the roof alone and how he could have fallen into the shaft accidentally given its configuration.

Despite calls from the family and community for a reinvestigation, the case has not been reclassified. It remains one of Nebraska's most debated suspicious death cases.