By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer
and Kristin Gordon
Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle-Gazette

The University of Cincinnati will plant two trees on campus in honor of two students shot to death Monday by another student who, police say, was jealous after losing his girlfriend.

Jeff Tipple talks Tuesday on the deaths of his son and Jennifer L. Duke. (Eagle-Gazette photo) | ZOOM |

The student tribunal at UC's College of Applied Science decided Tuesday to plant the trees to mark the deaths of Jennifer Duke, 19, and Nicklas Tipple, 20. The two had been seeing each other for about three weeks.

They were shot multiple times in Ms. Duke's condo in Westwood, police said, by Nicklaus Joyce, a 23-year-old UC engineering major with whom Ms. Duke had recently broken up.

Friends in Cincinnati and their families in suburban Columbus continued Tuesday to try to cope with the startling news about the three young, smart people.

"I don't want our family to be looked upon as victims,'' said Jeff Tipple, Mr. Tipple's father, as he planned his son's funeral in the chapel of the Catholic high school the son attended in Lancaster. "It's a tragedy, it's horrible, but we are not going to seek out vengeance. We are going to pray and not forget our values.''

He'd been communicating with his son Nick over the Internet Sunday night when the son said he had to go, he was late to go see Ms. Duke. The 20-year-old was a second-year student in architecture. He spent four years working for an architect in his hometown of Lancaster, learning drafting.

Mr. Tipple

Ms. Duke

"He wasn't just doing what I told him - he was going above and beyond that,'' said John Dye, the architect. "He had a wonderful work ethic, putting in time not just during the week, but nights and weekends.''

Mr. Tipple's uncle, Randy, looked through a scrapbook of his nephew's life, from wrestling meets to prom.

"You hear about things like this and never think you'll be a part of them,'' he said. "But the reality is that there's crime out there and you're not going to stop it.''

The family has no hard feelings toward Mr. Joyce, he said.

"Your first reaction is: What do we do now?'' he said. "There's just so much to think about.''

The Duke family still did not want to talk Tuesday about the killings. Thomas and Vicky Duke of Hilliard, Ohio, bought the Sheridan Street condo in August so their children, Jennifer and Michael, 18, could live there while both attended UC's College of Applied Science. Both worked at the bookstore on the Applied Science campus in Walnut Hills.

Michael Duke heard the shots, took his cordless phone into his bedroom closet and dialed 911, whispering for police to please hurry. After killing Ms. Duke and Mr. Tipple, police said, Mr. Joyce turned the gun on himself.

Mr. Joyce's roommates in Schneider Hall didn't want to talk about what happened. They said they didn't know him well, because they all moved in together when school started in September.

UC students and faculty will sign sympathy cards Thursday and Friday in the Applied Science lobby on Victory Parkway. They'll be sent to the Tipple and Duke families.

Fisher Catholic High School Principal James Condron said he would use the service in Lancaster for Mr. Tipple as an opportunity to remember the positive things about a former student he said treated adults, peers and children with the same respect. "We're stronger than we imagine,'' Mr. Condron said, "at times like this.''

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com