Monday, May 08, 2023
WUFT
On the last day of college classes after her freshman fall semester, Maggie Paxton began drinking with friends in the dorms at the University of Florida – students call it “pre-gaming” – before hitting Gainesville’s popular Midtown bars across a busy street from campus. She was 18. Despite her age and carrying a fake ID, Paxton ended up at Ladies Night at the Grog House Grill – a college town bar especially popular among undergraduates – with at least two friends, ages 18 and 20, where they spent about two more hours drinking. Her friends said Paxton never told them she was leaving the bar: a fateful decision to try to walk alone back to campus.