Indian American student died of hypothermia on University of Illinois campus, coroner says

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.”

Police 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. 

Dhawan was found unresponsive on the concrete steps of a university building, where he was pronounced dead on the scene, according to the police and coroners’ reports.

Ish asserts that the University of Illinois campus police should have done more to look for his son, and that no one from the school informed him when he was missing or found dead. 

“If somebody’s reported missing, you go and you look,” he said. “You mobilize people. When the temperature is minus Fahrenheit, every minute is precious.” 

Police representatives did not respond to specific questions about their search, but they said they are “heartbroken” for the Dhawan family, and that the investigation into the death is ongoing. 

“The safety of all of our students and community members is of the highest priority,” a police spokesperson said.

Dhawan’s parents said they remember him as a bright light, a natural engineer and a lover of Legos. They say a Marvel-themed Lego set he built when he was home for winter break will remain with them forever. 

“It was his last project,” Ish said. “He was just a happy-go-lucky kid.”