Missing Student Found Dead in Ill. Frat House

Police unsure how body went unnoticed for 8 days
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 24, 2008 11:50 AM CST
Missing Student Found Dead in Ill. Frat House
This image provided by the Collen family shows deceased Illinois Institute of Technology student Benjamin Collen.

An Illinois Institute of Technology student mysteriously turned up dead in a storage room of his fraternity house yesterday, after being considered missing for 8 days, the Chicago Tribune reports. Benjamin Collen’s death has been ruled an accident—the 19-year-old sophomore died of asphyxia after inhaling carbon dioxide from a canister. But it’s unclear how his body went unnoticed for so long.

The body was found by a fraternity brother; police won’t say whether they’d searched the building. Collen had been a member of the fraternity since his freshman year, but no longer lived in the house; he was kicked out a few weeks ago, a friend said. Police say no investigation is underway, because there is no evidence of wrongdoing. (More missing person stories.)

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