18-year-old from Dyersburg dies from meningitis - KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff

DYERSBURG, TN - (WMC-TV) – Jacob Nunley, 18, is being described by friends as one of the sweetest guys they have ever known.  Now his family is trying to deal with his death while health departments investigate it. 

"He was a sweet kid. Just friends with everybody," Shannon Howie said.  "Everybody loved him." 

Nunley worked for two years at Abe's steak house in Dyersburg while he was a student at  Dyersburg High. Everyone who works here knew him and his mother.   He was in his second year at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.  His mother is manager at a Dyersburg Apartment complex. Friends and family gathered here bringing food and comfort to his mother who was too distraught to come out and talk.  One friend said Jacob had been here visiting his mother just two weeks ago. 

"They just thought he was sick. Just kind of came out of nowhere. Nobody expected it," Howie said. 

Jacob Nunley died from complications from bacterial meningitis. It apparently happened quickly not long after he ended up at Vanderbilt Hospital. Friends say he thought he had mono.  It is not clear how he contracted the disease.   

Nunley was a member of SAE Fraternity at MTSU. The Fraternity put up a memorial page on Facebook, a page to honor him with people posting prayers and thoughts about Jacob.  

Everyone who knew Jacob is in shock. 

"It's really taken everybody. Shocked everybody. Nobody knew he was this sick," said Howie.

Right now university officials and health departments in Middle Tennessee are investigating Jacob Nunley's death trying to figure out what happened. Students are being offered antibiotics as a precaution.

Copyright 2012 WMC-TV. All rights reserved.