WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Several students at the Purdue University residence, where a student was murdered Wednesday, said they didn’t know the murder had been committed until hours later, when they learned about it from friends or the news or in an email from the school principal .
A resident of McCutcheon Hall, the male-only dorm where senior Varun Manish Chheda was murdered on the first floor, said he was in the dark even after hearing from university president Mitch Daniels.
“When I saw the email, it didn’t even say which residence it was in,” said Kolitha Perera, a freshman who lives on the fifth floor. “I had to google it to find out what happened and was shocked that it was in our building.”
“We got most of our information from the news, just like everyone else,” he said.
Perera said he went to school in Purdue two months ago, knows few people on campus and was scared after Chheda’s death.
“I feel like this is something so big, and only to find out a few hours later – it was disturbing,” he said.
Asked why the university had not warned the students at McCutcheon Hall earlier, a university spokesperson said the suspect, Ji Min Sha, who called police at around 12:45 am to alert the police to Chheda’s death, was detained minutes later.
The spokesman, Tim Doty, quoted a federal law saying there was no threat to the community.
“No timely warning has been issued,” he said.
The death of Purdue student Varun Chheda
- Chheda’s roommate, Ji Min Sha, called 911 to report the death and was taken into custody shortly after, officials said.
- Sha is being held in the Tippecanoe County Jail. His bail has not yet been set, records show.
- Chheda’s death is the first murder on campus in more than eight years, police said.
- Friends and classmates remembered Chheda as a dedicated and bright student who was a positive influence and loved his family.
Sha, who was Chheda’s roommate, was booked on suspicion of murder. Thursday night, Sha, 22, a cybersecurity major, had not yet been charged.
A preliminary autopsy said Chheda died of “multiple traumatic sharp-force injuries”. Murder was listed as his manner of death.
In the email, a student said he received about 6 a.m., nearly six hours after the murder was reported, Daniels briefly described the incident, reassured students about the importance of campus safety, and said counseling services were available.
Some students who were gaming with Chheda when he appears to have been attacked reported hearing screams during a conversation via Discord, the instant messaging platform they used to talk.
But others in the large red-brick residence, which is home to more than 700 students, said they went to sleep “without knowing a murder had taken place seven floors below us,” as freshman Jibraan Ghazi put it.
Parth Thakre, a freshman on the seventh floor, blamed the school for not warning the students earlier.
“I know there is a procedure,” he said. “I can see why they delayed a bit, because they got the man. But they should have given us more information.”
Daren Smith, also a freshman, felt the same.
“A text would have been nice,” he said. “I understand they didn’t want to panic, but we probably didn’t need to hear all of the news either.”
Safia Samee Ali reported from West Lafayette and Tim Stelloh from Alameda, California.