23-year-old Indian-American student found dead in US, seventh in 2024

Another Indian-American Purdue University student, 23-year-old Sameer Kamath, was found dead in the woods at the Niches Land Trust on Monday evening, the Warren County Coroner’s office reported. Kamath is the fourth Indian-American student who has been found dead in US in less than two weeks. At least seven Indian-origin students have been found dead in the US so far in 2024. His death is being investigated by the Warren County Coroner’s Office and Sheriff’s office. According to the Warren County Coroner, Kamath’s body was found around 5 pm on Monday at NICHES land trust, a nature preserve, at Crow’s Grove. “Sameer Kamath was found about 5 pm Monday at Crow’s Grove Nature Preserve at 3300 North Warren County Road 50 West, in Williamsport,” Warren County Coroner Justin Brummett said in a release published Tuesday afternoon. The coroner’s office has informed Kamath’s family of his passing. A forensic autopsy was scheduled to be performed in Crawfordsville on Tuesday afternoon (local time), the release added. ‘No threat to the public’ After Kamath’s body was found, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office said there was no threat to the public. Who is India-American Purdue student found dead in nature preserves? According to the coroner’s office, Kamath was a US citizen and was from Massachusetts. He was a doctorate student in the mechanical engineering department at Purdue University. Kamath received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and came to Purdue in the summer of 2021. He graduated from the department with a Masters’s Degree in mechanical engineering in August 2023. He was expected to graduate from the doctoral program in 2025, his LinkedIn profile showed. Deaths of Indian students in the US Every year, a large number of Indians move to the US for education. It is just the beginning of the year 2024 and already at least seven deaths of Indian or Indian-origin students have been reported. The latest incident is Kamath’s death. Last week, Shreyas Reddy Beniger , a student at the Linder School of Business in Ohio, died. Authorities have ruled out any foul play or a possibility of a hate crime in the case. On 30 January, another Purdue University student, Neel Acharya , who was missing in the US, was confirmed dead by authorities of the varsity. Also Read: Six deaths of Indian students in the US in a month: Is safety a concern? On 29 January, a resident of Haryana, 25-year-old Vivek Saini, who was pursuing an MBA are worked part-time at a convenience store, was fatally attacked in Georgia state’s Lithonia city by Julian Faulkner. Faulkner, a homeless man, allegedly killed Saini with repeated blows from a hammer inside the store. As per reports, the student refused to give Faulkner free food on 16 January which had led to the attack. Another Indian student Akul Dhawan, was found dead outside the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) earlier in January. The autopsy of the 18-year-old suggested that he died from hypothermia. However, his parents have filed a complaint, accusing the university’s police department of negligence and inaction after Akul was reported missing. Two more Indian students - G Dinesh (22) from Wanaparthy in Telangana and Nikesh (21) from Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh - were found dead under suspicious conditions at their Connecticut accommodation on 15 January. The duo had gone to the US for higher education in December last year. Their families do not know how the students, who were roommates, died. With inputs from agencies