Missing Chicago Student Pravin Varughese Found Dead - Foul Play Not Suspected
Missing student Pravin Varughese, 19, has been found dead in Carbondale, Illinois, after a nearly week-long search. Carbondale police offered no details about the cause of death, other than to say that his body showed no signs of trauma, leading them to believe foul play was not involved.
Varughese, a student at Southern Illinois University, was last seen on Feb. 12, leaving a party. He allegedly walked into the wooded area outside of town after getting into a "dispute" with someone at the party, and that person was driving Varughese home when the altercation started. Police believe that they believe Varughese exited the vehicle on his own and continued walking.
"Bloody knuckles … guess I was in a fight #backdown," Varughese tweeted that night.
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Yet police said that there was no apparent trauma to the body and no signs of foul play. They suspect that the weather may have been a factor in Varughese's death. He was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt when he began walking in the woods. Varughese may have had trouble finding his way back out of the woods and succumbed to the cold, but a friend came forward to state that Varughese had tried calling her early Thursday morning.
"She said it sounded like he was running, arguing with someone. But what he was saying wasn't really clear to her," Varughese's sister, Priya, told the press.
An autopsy and toxicology report are pending and will help police bring closure to the case that has haunted Varughese's family and friends, who held out hope that he would return home. The family and community raised a $15,000 reward for information leading to his return and held a vigil to pray the rosary together.
"We just want him back so bad. I don't know how we're going to live without him," Varughese's mother, Lovely, told WSIL-TV.
"On behalf of our Family, we wanted to thank you all for your kind words, endless support and prayers for Pravin," Jiji Abraham wrote on the Facebook page keeping the public informed about Varughese's disappearance. "We ask that you continue to keep Pravin's parents and sisters in your prayers as we go through this difficult time and mourn the loss of a beloved Son, Brother, Grandson, Nephew, Cousin, & Friend."
