Indian American student died of hypothermia on University of Illinois campus, coroner says
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign student Akul Dhawan, found dead on Jan. 20, succumbed to hypothermia in his final moments.
The University of Illinois freshman who went missing last month after a party died of hypothermia, the county coroner said this week.
The body of Akul Dhawan, 18, was found 500 feet from where he was last seen on Jan. 20, campus police at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign said in a breakdown of their investigation. He was reported missing by a friend at 1:23 a.m., and though police said they searched the area thoroughly, his body was found 10 hours later by a passerby.
“I believe this is just a bad dream, I believe he is going to come back,” Dhawan’s father, Ish Dhawan, told NBC News earlier this month. “It is so unimaginable that a kid can die in this day and age right on the university campus.”
Akul Dhawan's body was found just 500 feet from where he was last seen on campus.Courtesy Ish DhawanPolice reported that Dhawan was at a club, left, returned and was denied entry multiple times. Venue staff tried to convince him to take a rideshare home, the investigation report said, but Dhawan declined, and his friends were unable to reach him after that.
With temperatures that night falling below zero, coroners say prolonged exposure to cold temperatures and acute alcohol intoxication contributed to his death from hypothermia.
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