By Jonathan Bullington
February 20, 2014
Photo courtesy chicago.cbslocal.com
The search for a missing Southern Illinois University student from suburban Morton Grove has ended in heartbreak for family and friends after police said they found him dead in a wooded area Tuesday, nearly a week after he was last seen.
Police in downstate Carbondale said they found the body of Pravin Varughese at about 9:45 a.m. He had last been seen around 11 p.m. Feb. 12 leaving a party about three miles from where his body was discovered.
Authorities said the 19-year-old sophomore and criminal justice major had walked into the wooded area on the eastern edge of town after getting into a “dispute” with someone at the party. That man was attempting to drive Varughese home when the dispute started, police said.
At a press conference Tuesday, Carbondale police would say little about the nature of the dispute, other than they believed Varughese exited the vehicle on his own accord.
His sister, Priya Varughese, 20, had said phone records showed her brother called a friend in Chicago at 12:30 a.m. Thursday, about 90 minutes after he reportedly left the party.
The friend told her it sounded like her brother might have been running or arguing with someone, she said.
Varughese’s Twitter account showed a tweet at 11:17 p.m. that night reading: “Bloody knuckles … guess I was in a fight #backdown.”
Police said Varughese’s body showed no obvious signs of trauma, and no evidence thus far points to foul play in his death.