An 18-year-old student from India at the University of Illinois found frozen to death had been denied entry into a nightclub that same night.
Details released by police and reported by the News Gazette indicate Akul Dhawan had been with friends at the Canopy Club but that the club denied him entry numerous times.
He is seen on security video consuming alcohol prior to going to Canopy. His friends enter the club while he stayed outside. When he tried to go in, the club denied him entry multiple times.
Twice the club called a rideshare and tried to convince him to take the ride home, but he refused.
Friends became concerned when they could not find Dhawan and reported him missing.
He was found dead not far from campus in the morning.
In an open letter written by his parents and released to police, media and elected officials, the family blames police for not thoroughly investigating their son’s disappearance and for violating search protocols.
“We believe that the police never searched for our son.
“UI police never came in person to speak with the friend who reported him missing.
“We have been asking why Akul was found 10 hours later, rather than immediately after he was reported missing, when he could still be saved.
“The locations where he was reported missing and where he was found are less than 200 feet apart. 200 feet!” his parents wrote.
Police have described the death as accidental. They say when a friend reported Dhawan missing, it was not clear he had been at the club and assumed he was last seen near at his dormitory.
Dhawan was a first-year student at the University of Illinois, Urbana. His family lived in California.
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This story is heartbreaking and infuriating. Who knows what would have happened if they had been allowed inside? The images of the boy in the doorway, freezing to death, are forever etched in my mind. A solemn reminder of the humanity that asylum seekers often face.