The 18-year-old student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was found dead on the back porch of a building after his roommate reported him missing on Saturday. Officers supposedly searched the premises before he was discovered at 11:08 a.m.
The preliminary autopsy of an Indian student found dead on a U.S. university campus shows signs of hypothermia but no evidence of trauma, local news agencies reported on Wednesday.
According to CDC
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Hypothermia is caused by prolonged exposures to very cold temperatures. When exposed to cold temperatures, your body begins to lose heat faster than it’s produced. Lengthy exposures will eventually use up your body’s stored energy, which leads to lower body temperature.
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Body temperature that is too low affects the brain, making the victim unable to think clearly or move well. This makes hypothermia especially dangerous, because a person may not know that it’s happening and won’t be able to do anything about it.
The roommate reportedly called the police at 1:30 a.m. after the victim, Akul Dhawan, was not spotted for an hour and remained unreachable by phone.
The police said they were treating the death as an accident unless further investigation changed the status. A toxicology report is being processed, according to reports.
The freshman was majoring in electrical engineering. According to his LinkedIn profile, Dhawan was an aspiring computer engineer.
Dhawan’s parents allege that the police took at least 30 minutes to arrive after being notified of the situation.
The University of Illinois police, in a statement shared with the media, said that they have set up resources to support Dhawan’s family.
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