Veishea festivities turned sour when a party-goer was stabbed to death early Sunday morning.

Harold “Uri” Sellers, 19, was stabbed once in the chest and found on the front lawn of Adelante Fraternity, 318 Welch Ave. Sellers was stabbed with “some type of edged instrument, suspected to be a knife,” said Sgt. Jim Robinson, public relations officer for the Ames Police Department.

Police believe there may have been an altercation leading up to the attack.

It isn’t known if alcohol was a factor. No arrests have been made.

Police reports show that a 911 emergency phone call from the fraternity was received at 2:53 a.m. According to reports, the caller stated that someone was bleeding from the chest in the fraternity’s front yard.

Sellers was transported by ambulance to Mary Greeley Medical Center. Leah Berbano, hospital spokeswoman, said Sellers was admitted to the emergency room at 3:19 a.m. He was declared dead at 4:06 a.m. An autopsy is expected to be performed in the next few days.

Sellers, of Monroe, was a student at DMACC in Ankeny.

Police are looking for a “white male, age 19 to early 20s, approximately 6-feet tall, medium build, short black hair, possibly with facial hair consisting of a mustache, goatee and long side burns, wearing a black leather coat, blue jeans and a tan shirt.”

The suspect is believed to have fled the scene with two other males. Police said witnesses at the scene saw the three males leave the area, heading south down Welch Avenue and then east on Knapp Street.

Robinson said police have interviewed dozens of witnesses and are attempting to locate any videotapes that were being filmed on Welch Avenue at the time of the incident. He said several Adelante members may have been on the fraternity’s second-floor balcony, which overlooks the front lawn, when Sellers was noticed.

Fraternity members declined comment Sunday.

“We are proceeding diligently and hoping that leads will lead to an arrest soon,” Robinson said.

Several ISU students attended Prairie City-Monroe High School with Sellers.

Molly Jones, an ISU sophomore in elementary education, said no one called Sellers by his first name. He was known as “Uri,” a variation of his middle name.

Jones said her father coached Sellers in high school. Her twin brother, Matt Jones, was friends with Sellers.

“I’ve known him for a long time, since eighth grade,” she said. “He was very outgoing, very well-liked, very popular.”

Sellers told Matt Jones Friday night that he was coming to Ames on Saturday for the Veishea celebration. “He was just coming up to be with his friends. A lot of people were up here from our high school,” Molly Jones said.

Molly Jones drove home Sunday to be with Sellers’ family.

Several members of Theta Xi Fraternity, which is located across the street from Adelante, said they saw Sellers lying on the lawn, but said they didn’t know he was injured.

“He was there for a good 7 to 10 minutes before the ambulance showed up. It just looked like a guy had passed out,” said Mark Murphy, a senior in textiles and clothing.

Murphy and James Woodman, a sophomore in sociology and criminal justice and a Theta Xi member, said the evening’s activities had quieted by the time the incident occurred. They said that when the ambulance arrived, people cleared out.

They said the atmosphere in the area at the time was nothing out of the ordinary for Veishea — “a few drunken fights, but nothing big,” Woodman said.

Murphy and Woodman also said they saw several people on Adelante’s balcony around the time Sellers was likely attacked.

It isn’t known if Sellers was attacked while on Adelante’s lawn, or if he wandered there after being stabbed.

Mark Thompson, football coach at Ellsworth Community College, said Sellers was a student and linebacker for the Ellsworth football team a year ago. He transferred to DMACC in January.

“He was a super kid and a great student,” Thompson said.

According to the Monroe Police Department, Sellers had nothing more serious on his record than traffic violations.

Brian Hazelton, athletic director at Prairie City-Monroe High School, said he was with Sellers Friday night, lifting weights and playing volleyball at the high school gymnasium.

Hazelton said Sellers was a three-sport athlete in high school: track, baseball and football. “Harold had some strikes against him, but he was a good kid,” he said.

Sellers had about a 3.4 grade-point average in high school, Hazelton said. “He was a tough kid, and he hung around a tough crowd. He was well-liked by both older and younger people and people looked up to him. He loved to help people. He didn’t see that kind of stuff as a pain in the butt.”

Hazelton said he knew Sellers had some friends he was going to hook up with while in Ames.

Sellers is survived by his father, Bill Sellers, and a younger brother in high school.

Matt Jones, a high school classmate of Sellers and a student at Indian Hills Community College, said he had known Sellers since the two were in seventh grade. Sellers was one of his best friends.

“He was the brother I didn’t have. We were always together,” Matt Jones said.

Matt Jones said Sellers worked hard all of the time. “He would do anything for ya. He’d do anything for anybody. It was a senseless tragedy.”

Matt Jones’ father, Gordon Jones, is the head football coach at PCM High School. “I considered it an honor to have him on my team. He was like a second son to me,” Gordon Jones said.

Gordon Jones said that during the 1995 high school football season, his son and Sellers talked to junior high students during a Homecoming pep rally. Gordon Jones said Sellers told the students that when they entered high school, they “were going to have to establish a good work ethic.”

“I thought it was a pretty mature speech,” Gordon Jones said.

The coach said Sellers did some “goofy things,” but he was a good athlete and a good student.

“It was a good combination to have,” he said.

—Daily staff writers Tracy Deumeyer, Keesia Wirt and Tim Frerkng contributed to this report.