Two University of Alabama fraternity brothers were killed in a house fire while on a hunting trip with two friends who managed to escape, according to officials.
Mark “McNeil” Mostellar, 21, and James “Walter” Hensley II, 19, were killed in Evergreen, Alabama, around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Conecuh County Coroner’s Office said, without revealing how the blaze appears to have started.
The standout athletes – who were part of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the oldest fraternity in the state – were pronounced dead at the scene. Two of their friends managed to escape but were hospitalized with injuries,
Mostellar, who played as an outback linebacker for Mobile’s UMS-Wright Preparatory School, had a bright future, according to his former coach Terry Curtis.
“He had a motor and that helped him tremendously to make a name for himself and to work,” Curtis told WKRG.
“And he knew his position better than even some of the coaches.”
Curtis said the football player often asked questions – and at first, he thought he was trying to be “funny or cute.”
“But as he became a good football player, he was asking questions to help him make a better player,” he said.
Business major student Hensley, a university freshman who was part of the Greek Basketball Association, was killed just one year after graduating St. Paul’s high school. The school held a vigil Wednesday to pay tribute.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
“Additional information will be released as it becomes available and as the investigation allows,” coroners say.
