A recent documentary on the murder of college student Pravin Varughese has ignited a new debate over the fate of the person his family believes killed him.

Varughese was leaving a party in February 2014 when he disappeared, reported the Chicago Tribune. He accepted a ride with an acquaintance he met at the party — but never made it home. His body was found a few days later in the woods of Carbondale, Illinois.

Varughese was a student at Southern Illinois University, ironically studying criminal law.

According to his family, Varughese got into an altercation with the acquaintance, and he ran out of the car, fleeing for his life. Police initially stated Varughese’s cause of death was due to hypothermia, and the college sophomore was found wearing only jeans and a t-shirt, despite the fact that it was in the middle of winter in southern Illinois. The family said the police told them there was no evidence of physical trauma. They didn’t believe this and sought an independent autopsy which uncovered blunt head trauma. The Varughese’s recounted their story in the Discovery+ documentary Who Killed My Son?

But in 2018, the case against the man who gave Varughese a ride, Gaege Bethune, was dismissed, and his conviction vacated. NBC Chicago said his defense lawyers claimed there was no evidence that definitively pointed to Bethune hitting Varughese.

The Varughese family is hopeful for a new trial

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