HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Site of the 1967 custodian murder at Texas Tech — documented by a Texas Tech University Press book and a convicted 40-year sentence
Texas Tech University Campus, Lubbock, TX 79409
Research updated June 2026
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All Ages
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Free
Texas Tech University campus is publicly accessible; no admission fee
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Paved university campus with accessible walkways
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1967 Campus Homicide · Texas Tech University Dark History · Documented in Texas Tech University Press (2018)
December 4, 1967 was a quiet night on the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock until custodian Sarah Alice Morgan began her cleaning rounds in the Science Building. Graduate student Benjamin Lach had broken in with the intent to steal examination materials. When Morgan encountered him, Lach killed her with a scalpel. She was discovered by other campus workers.
The case was prosecuted, and Lach was convicted of murder with malice — a first-degree charge — and sentenced to 40 years in prison. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal covered the case at the time, and it entered the city's documented crime history as one of the more notable campus-adjacent homicides of the era. A Lubbock criminal defense firm's retrospective article, citing the Avalanche-Journal, placed the Morgan murder among the most infamous cases in Lubbock's history.
In 2018, Texas Tech University Press published a book-length reconstruction of the case, "Fatal Exam," which brought renewed attention to the Morgan murder and formalized its place in the university's documented history. The Science Building has since been repurposed, but the structure itself remains on campus. Campus folklore sites document paranormal activity associated with the building, reflecting the case's persistence in institutional memory.
Sources
The Morgan murder's place in Texas Tech's institutional memory has generated corresponding paranormal folklore, documented by campus-affiliated sites covering Lubbock's haunted locations. Reports cluster around the building's upper floors and service corridors — the kind of spaces that custodial staff would work in at night.
The specific claim most often repeated is that of sounds during late-night hours that echo the circumstances of Morgan's discovery: footsteps in empty hallways, a sense of movement in peripheral vision, and ambient unease in spaces where she would have been working. These reports are consistent with the genre of campus crime-site haunting legends rather than independently verified paranormal phenomena.
The 2018 publication of "Fatal Exam" by Texas Tech University Press reactivated campus interest in the case, and renewed the legend's circulation among students. The building itself is not marked or memorialized for the crime.
The former Science Building — now repurposed — sits on the Texas Tech main campus. The 1967 murder of custodian Sarah Alice Morgan occurred here and was extensively documented in a 2018 Texas Tech University Press book. The building is not marked as a crime site; this is a self-guided historical stop for those researching the case.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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