|
Post by dadfsr on Jan 30, 2007 14:22:58 GMT -5
This only directly apply to those of us near to West Lafayette but any help is really appreciated. Rural landowners needed to respond to Purdue's request to search property STAFF REPORT Purdue University is seeking help from rural landowners in the continued search for missing student Wade Steffey. Steffey, a freshman from Bloomington, has been missing since shortly after midnight on Jan. 13. Jeanne Norberg, university spokeswoman, said the search needs to be expanded into more rural areas and onto privately owned land. But the university needs permission by landowners to search private property. "We need landowners to call us," Norberg said. She is concerned the message is not being heard. The university will organize volunteers on foot, with all-terrain vehicles and/or on horseback to search the private properties. Contact the center at (765) 496-2289 or by e-mail at volunteer@purdue.edu. No searches were planned for today. Purdue was organizing its new management for the Wade Steffey Volunteer Center this morning, located in the End Zone Cafe on the northwest side of Ross-Ade Stadium, and putting up county maps to mark off areas that have been searched. Try this link also-I hope I did it right: www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070130/NEWS0501/701300332/1001/NEWSI'm going out after work to look over our property.......
|
|
|
Post by Woody Williams on Jan 30, 2007 15:25:38 GMT -5
I can not imagine having a missing child. That has to be one fo the worst feelings ever. As time goes by the mental anquish must get worse and worse.
Any of you on here that hunts in that area can help by obtaining permisssion of landowners to search their land.
If you have time, help in the search itself.
No one knows woods and streams any better than us hunters. We canfind things tha othes would over lok.
Please help if you can.
'We're resolved to find our son'
Parents of missing student cope with the 'unimaginable'
By STEVE HINNEFELD The Herald-Times
BLOOMINGTON -- It's been two weeks since Wade Steffey disappeared from the Purdue University campus. But his parents believe someone, somewhere, knows what happened, and they want that person to contact police.
"Whoever has knowledge of what happened to Wade, it will be found out," his father, Dale Steffey, said Friday. "It would be better if they come forward sooner rather than later."
Wade, 19, a Purdue freshman from Bloomington, disappeared after leaving a fraternity party the night of Jan. 12. He was reported missing Jan. 16, after the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
Police and volunteers have searched the Purdue campus and surrounding area for clues, but without success. And his parents, in Bloomington after spending a week in West Lafayette, are waiting and trying to stay positive, with no idea what the future holds.
"Years of this are unimaginable," Steffey said.
"Every day's unimaginable, but you just find a way to go on and do what you need to do."
Sitting in their Bloomington home, surrounded by stained-glass art and paintings they have made, Steffey and Dawn Adams talked about their son and their bafflement about what happened.
They're sure Wade wouldn't have left campus willingly without telling his friends. But they find it hard to think he had a serious accident or was the victim of an assault or abduction.
"He's bright; he's capable; he reads a situation well," Adams said. "He's physically fit. He would be one of the last people, I would think, that this would happen to."
ADVERTISEMENT
She said Wade likes watching the Comedy Channel, playing games on his computer and staying in constant touch with his friends by cell phone. When his roommate returned to Purdue from a three-day weekend and found Wade missing and his phone charger in the room, he knew something was wrong.
"Thank goodness for the kids -- they're so interconnected with their media these days," Steffey said. "That was one of the few bright spots for us, so far, that they noticed what they did."
Adams has resumed working -- the couple create and sell stained-glass art -- something her husband hasn't yet been able to do. "I think the work is going to be good for me," she said.
She said she "made a bargain with myself" not to imagine in detail what happened to Wade, because she couldn't bear to think of his suffering.
Wade is her only child; her husband has an older daughter and a 2-year-old granddaughter.
"Every once in a while, you have a breakdown," she said. "It comes and it goes. Then you go back to that waiting."
They talk every day to police, keep thinking of Wade in the present tense, and do what they can to help with the investigation.
"We're resolved to find our son," Steffey said. "We're resolved to find the truth of his disappearance. And, really, finding him is paramount.
"The truth, that's something for the police to discover. For us, just finding him is enough."
|
|
|
Post by danf on Jan 30, 2007 16:39:39 GMT -5
Do you know if they've checked the ponds in the gravel pit? I know they've searched the river, but there's a lot of water between campus and the river....
|
|
|
Post by dadfsr on Jan 31, 2007 7:13:28 GMT -5
I had to help clear out a ramp to the main pond next to campus for a sonar unit to come in but don't know about the other ones. It was pretty wet that he disappeared so the thinking is that he wouldn't too far off a traveled area.
|
|
|
Post by 10point on Jan 31, 2007 7:53:51 GMT -5
I saw on the news were they were searching the gravel pits between campus and South River road.
|
|
|
Post by DEERTRACKS on Jan 31, 2007 8:55:31 GMT -5
Bad deal!!!!!!! I have been following it on the news.
|
|
|
Post by dadfsr on Feb 1, 2007 10:33:04 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by bsutravis on Feb 1, 2007 10:41:08 GMT -5
Amazing how some missing-persons gather a ton of publicity, while others go un-noticed by the media. The longer that this continues the more grim the outcome will most likely be. Hopefully it has a happy ending, like the boys that were found in Missouri.
|
|
|
Post by cambygsp on Feb 1, 2007 10:54:39 GMT -5
At first thought you might think that the kid ran off with his girlfreind or something. The longer this goes on the worst the outcome is going to be. Prayers are with him and his family!
|
|
|
Post by Woody Williams on Mar 20, 2007 7:47:35 GMT -5
SAD NEWS...Body Found in Purdue Campus Utility Roomtinyurl.com/2c3houWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Authorities expect on Tuesday to identify a body that a Purdue University worker found inside a residence hall's utility room, a school spokesman said. Purdue spokesman Phillip Fiorini said the body was removed Monday afternoon from the high-voltage utility room in Owen Hall a few hours after it was discovered. The coed residence hall, which houses about 700 students, is near the last reported location of missing Purdue freshman Wade Steffey, 19, who vanished Jan. 13. Fiorini said the Tippecanoe County coroner's office expects to identify the body on Tuesday. He said investigators have not described the body as either male or female, or released any other details. Steffey, of Bloomington, was last seen leaving a fraternity party on the north side of campus. His parents, who were alerted to the body's discovery by Purdue officials, arrived on the West Lafayette campus Monday. 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. Purdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said the body was discovered after someone heard a "pinging" noise coming from inside the room and called the campus utility department, asking it to investigate. "The utility worker went in and found a body in this room. It's a high-voltage area," Norberg said. "She was traumatized. It's a very difficult situation for her." Power was cut to the residence hall while the body was removed from what she described as a transformer room filled with high-voltage connections. She also said that the ground-level utility room is not accessible from Owen Hall and is locked with two sets of keys, one each for two sets of doors. Norberg said that when the building was searched for clues into Steffey's disappearance the utility room was apparently not examined because it was locked. "Right now we don't know how this deceased individual would have gained entry. That's certainly a question we need to answer, but right now our most important concern is with this individual's family," she said. Campus officials have staged several searches for Steffey, the most recent one on Sunday when about 60 volunteers, assisted by dogs, conducted a ground search. Searchers also were examining more than 2,000 aerial photographs taken of the West Lafayette area, hoping to find clues about what happened to Steffey.
|
|
|
Post by bsutravis on Mar 20, 2007 8:19:29 GMT -5
I'm wondering...... if someway, somehow Wade got into this room either on his own power, or was put there.....and died of dehydration / starvation since obviously nobody has been there in over 2 months. A very weird place to find him......right under their noses the entire time.
|
|
|
Post by dbd870 on Mar 20, 2007 8:25:59 GMT -5
I wonder if someone forgot to lock up last time they were in there and he stumbled in intoxicated and ZZZZZ, that would be very tragic.
|
|
|
Post by Hawkeye on Mar 20, 2007 9:59:30 GMT -5
This smells bad, I wonder if they even looked under his bed .So much for the search, and security.
|
|
|
Post by bsutravis on Mar 20, 2007 10:13:15 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by dadfsr on Mar 20, 2007 10:49:56 GMT -5
I'm going to have watch what I say but I am also very dissappointed....There were untold manhours-documented and undocumented -that were spent looking for him. I know that I got reaquainted with my property and several others in some of the worst of cold conditions. My prayers go to the family now.
|
|
|
Post by bsutravis on Mar 20, 2007 10:53:09 GMT -5
I'm sure the family appreciates your efforts dadfsr.... The cold snap was right in the midst of the search and the temps were brutal for certain. Purdue will have a lot of questions to answer as to how Wade got through two security doors that were locked and required two different sets of keys to gain access.
|
|
|
Post by 10point on Mar 20, 2007 12:26:49 GMT -5
In the press conference some guy from the University said to fully search that room it would have required them to shut the power off to Owen Hall. Sounds pretty simple to me.
|
|
|
Post by drgreyhound on Mar 20, 2007 18:30:37 GMT -5
Say a prayer for Wade and his grieving family...I can't imagine the pain his parents have been going through.
|
|
|
Post by Woody Williams on Mar 20, 2007 18:34:56 GMT -5
Say a prayer for Wade and his grieving family...I can't imagine the pain his parents have been going through. Will do. They do have some closure now.
|
|
|
Post by Hawkeye on Mar 21, 2007 7:59:04 GMT -5
I think Purdue better put some of that one hundred million recent donation aside ,because they are going to need it to pay a judgement down the road.
|
|