Who Was Akul Dhawan, The Indian-Origin Student Who Tragically Froze To Death In US?

In a tragic turn of events, 18-year-old Akul Dhawan, an Indian-American student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the US, was discovered deceased after being missing for several hours. The Champaign County Coroner's Office revealed that Dhawan had succumbed to hypothermia, aggravated by acute alcohol intoxication and prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures.

Dhawan's body was found on January 20 on the back porch of a building near the university campus in west Urbana, Illinois, displaying signs of hypothermia. Campus police had been investigating the exact cause of his death. Reports indicated that Dhawan had been drinking with friends that evening, but things changed around 11:30 pm.

According to the police, Dhawan's friends went into the Canopy Club, a venue near the campus that they had already visited earlier that night, but staff denied entry to Dhawan. He also turned down two rideshare offers that were arranged for him.

Amidst harsh weather conditions in Illinois, with wind chills plummeting between -20 to -30 degrees Celsius, Dhawan remained outdoors, increasing the danger he faced. Despite efforts to contact him, calls to Dhawan went unanswered. A friend eventually alerted campus police, prompting a search. However, even with an officer patrolling the area, Dhawan could not be located.

The following morning, a university employee discovered Dhawan's body on the back porch of a building, where he was pronounced dead. His parents, Ish and Ritu Dhawan, devastated by the loss of their son, noted that Dhawan was found just 400 feet away from where he was last seen, as indicated by location-tracking data from his phone.

Despite his youth, Dhawan was committed to his passion for robotics and enrolled in the University of Illinois' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering against his parents' initial wishes for him to stay closer to home, as reported by The News-Gazette.