MIT Student Murdered; Three Youths in Custody

A MIT undergraduate was stabbed to death by three East Cambridge teenagers Friday night after they robbed him of $30.

Twenty-one year old Yngve K. Raustein, from Os, Norway, died within minutes of the scuffle, which took place in front of MIT's Hayden Library on Memorial Drive.

Joseph D. Donovan, Alfredo Velez and Shon McHugh, all students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, accosted Raustein and his classmate Arne Fredheim at 9:45 p.m., according to police.

According to police accounts, the teenagers began arguing loudly with the two MIT students. The suspects were further angered when Raustein and Fredheim spoke to each other in their native language.

Donovan, 17, allegedly punched Raustein in the face, knocking him to the ground. The youths then stole $30 from Raustein and $3 from Fredheim.

McHugh, 15, allegedly stabbed Raustein repeatedly through the heart with a six-inch switchblade knife be fore fleeing with Velez and Donovan across the Harvard Bridge to Kenmore Square.

A student who heard screaming called the MIT campus police from a telephone at the nearby library.

Boston University Police arrested Donovan, Velez and McHugh at 10:15 p.m., 10 minutes after Raustein was pronounced dead at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Police later found the knife hidden behind the tire of a car in Kenmore Square, and Raustein's wallet floating in the Charles River.

District Attorney Thomas Reilly said he would try to prosecute the juveniles as adults, for murder and two counts of armed robbery.

Donovan and Velez, who is 18, are being held at the State Metro jail room in Boston. McHugh is at the juvenile holding center in Revere. All three will be arraigned today at the Third Cambridge District Court.

Raustein, a junior majoring in aeronautics, sparked a debate about free speech on MIT's campus last November when he sent anti-Semitic jokes over a national computer network.

"He's from Norway and he didn't know anything about that P.C. [politically correct] stuff," said Jon L. Claman, who was one of the first people to see Raustein's transmission.

In a petition circulated yesterday, students at MIT demanded that the university increase the number of shuttle busses and lights on campus.