Police in Evanston, Ill. believe that alcohol consumption may have been a factor in the drowning death of Northwestern University student Harsha Maddula.
Police have now completed a second round of interviews with students who saw the 18-year-old Garden City Park resident drinking alcohol before he left a party at 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 22, Commander Jason Parrott said. Parrot said police are awaiting results of toxicology tests on Maddula from the Cook County Medical Examiner.
“There has been no substantiated evidence that he was going to harm himself,” Parrott said. “But there are definitely some indicators that he was intoxicated when he left the party.”
Maddula walked from the party to Wilmette Harbor, where his body was discovered several days later.
Parrott said there is no evidence of foul play in the death of the exemplary pre-med student.
The Cook County Medical Examiner has ruled the cause of death as drowning for an “undetermined” reason after an initial autopsy, which leaves open the possibility of suicide or accident as the cause.
Parrott said the police had gained no new information from canvassing people in the neighborhoods Maddula would likely have walked through in the mile he traveled on foot from the party to Wilmette Harbor.
The record of a signal from Maddula’s cell phone received in the early morning on Sept. 22 at a cell tower in Willmette Harbor was the clue that led police to search for him there. The student was reported missing two days after he left the party. A fisherman ultimately discovered Maddula’s body floating in the water of the harbor on Sept. 27.
Family members and friends have said that Maddula has recently been diagnosed with Type I diabetes and was required to take insulin shots to stabilize blood-sugar levels. He reportedly was initially uncomfortable with taking the insulin shots.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office reportedly found no evidence of insulin or alcohol in Maddula’s body during the autopsy.
Parrott said the Evanston Police Department is expecting to received results of the toxicology tests shortly. Results of toxicology tests in Cook County normally take six to eight weeks, he said. He said Maddula was the 345th case during September that required toxicology tests from the county medical examiner’s office.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
