An 18-year-old student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) was reportedly found dead last week with signs of hypothermia. The parents of the student filed a complaint against the school’s police department for negligence.
According to reports, Akul B. Dhawan vanished last Saturday just before 1:30 a.m. and was discovered dead on the back porch of a building close to the university campus in west Urbana, Illinois, nearly ten hours later.
According to his friend, he had been missing for approximately 60 minutes, the University of Illinois Police were quoted by USA Today.
The Illinois State Police, the Champaign County Coroner’s Office, and campus police are currently investigating the cause of his death; however, preliminary autopsy results from Tuesday revealed signs of hypothermia.
“There was no indication of any severe trauma,” the Champaign County Coroner stated in a press release. Skin alterations consistent with hypothermia were evident. Toxicology studies are a prerequisite for the final autopsy report.”
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“Preliminary information suggests that there was no foul play involved, and the death is initially believed to be accidental,” according to university police as well. There is a current investigation.
In the second half of January, Illinois and a large portion of the Midwest endured bitterly cold and freezing temperatures, with wind chills of -20 to -30 degrees
Dhawan’s parents have filed a complaint against the university’s police department, accusing them of negligence regarding the way the search was conducted.
Based on location-tracking information from their son’s phone, Ish and Ritu Dhawan announced on Wednesday that their son was located just 400 feet from the place where he was reported missing.
Ish Dhawan said, “This is strange—a child who was just a block away, or less than a minute, is never found, sitting there, dead, frozen to death.”
“Imagine what’s going through in our mind as a dad and mom. I visualize every minute that my son froze to death on a university campus.”
“We need answers,” his mother said. “What is the proof that they searched in this area, around the area they’re talking (about), this half-block? My kid would have been found.”
University police investigated Akul Dhawan’s last known location, his residence hall, and the most likely route between the two, which included the main Quad and streets after he was reported missing.
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The student was contacted by phone by the police, who also checked nearby hospitals. Nevertheless, they were unable to find him.
A university employee reported “a man on the back porch of a building” to police and emergency medical services just after 11 a.m. the following morning. His status as “deceased at the time he was found” was reported by police.
California-based Dhawan’s parents said they had meetings in the city with senior university administrators. The family wants to learn more about UI’s search policy so that no one else has to go through the same suffering as them, according to his uncle Rishab Mehandru, who spoke with the media outlet.
Despite the opposition of his parents, who preferred that he stay closer to home, Dhawan, who turned 18 in September, attended the University of Illinois’ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to study robotics.
A request for information from USA TODAY was not immediately answered by the University of Illinois.
