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WEST LAFAYETTE - A body found inside a dormitory's locked, high-voltage utility room has been identified as a 19-year-old Purdue University student who vanished more than two months ago, a university official said Tuesday.
The Tippecanoe County coroner said the body found Monday by a college maintenance worker investigating reports of a "pinging" or "popping" sound is that of Wade Steffey, a freshman from Bloomington who disappeared Jan. 13 after leaving a fraternity party.
Norberg said Steffey had been fatally shocked when he entered the utility room in an apparent attempt to enter Owen Hall to retrieve his coat. It appeared he tripped and fell onto a power transformer.
"He is believed to have died instantly," she said.
Officials conducted numerous searches of the Purdue campus for Steffey, but university spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said the searchers somehow missed the utility room at Owen Hall, where someone matching Steffey's description was seen the night he disappeared.
Around noon Monday - the day classes resumed after a weeklong spring break - Norberg said a worker investigating the noises unlocked a door leading to the utility room and found the body slumped over a piece of machinery.
Power to Owen Hall - a coed residence hall that houses about 700 students - had to be shut off to retrieve the body.
Steffey was reported missing after friends returned from the school's three-day break for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and could not find him.
His parents were alerted to the body's discovery and arrived at Purdue on Monday.
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