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October 26, 2005
Burned body, Dental records - that of Olamide Adeyooye
NORMAL, Illinois - A body found in a burned-out chicken house in Mississippi is that of missing Illinois State University senior Olamide Adeyooye, who last seen two weeks ago at a video store, authorities said Wednesday.
Dental records were used to identify the 21-year-old's badly burned body. Authorities did not release a cause of death.
"As far as the cause of death, we believe she was already deceased when the body was dropped off in Newton County (Mississippi)," Newton County Sheriff Jackie Knight said. "We have investigators from Illinois here with us but we believe the actual death took place in Illinois."
Knight said he was not aware of any signs of sexual abuse.
Normal Police Lt. Mark Kotte said authorities were still investigating how Adeyooye, who was last seen Oct. 13, ended up in Mississippi.
"Bloomington-Normal is a very safe community and this is an incident that is extremely rare," Kotte said. "I tell them this is a very isolated incident. It is not an incident of somebody going around preying on college students."
A native of Nigeria who moved to suburban Chicago when she was 8, Adeyooye was last seen at a video store near her off-campus apartment in this central Illinois city.
Her body was found Friday in central Mississippi by the owner of the chicken house who was cleaning up after a blaze there four days earlier.
Illinois investigators suspected the body could be that of Adeyooye because physical descriptions matched and the fire occurred just four days after she disappeared. They also said the burned building is near Interstate 55, which also passes through Normal.
Adeyooye was reported missing when she didn't show up for classes and her weekend job as a waitress. Police launched a criminal investigation into her disappearance last week after evidence and interviews led them to suspect foul play.
Adeyooye, who studied laboratory sciences and biology at ISU, was due to graduate from the 20,000-student college in December and planned to return to Chicago to complete her clinical training at a hospital.
"As we mourn her passing and try to make sense of what is sometimes unexplainable, I ask everyone in the university community to keep Olamide's family and friends in their thoughts and prayers," ISU president Al Bowman said. "This terrible tragedy will bring with it many emotions: grief, anger, perhaps a sense of helplessness."
Nearly 40 investigators, including the FBI and Illinois State Police, assisted in the search for her. Her family and friends also searched, posting fliers and sending out messages through Web sites and blogs.
Adeyooye's family declined to comment after Wednesday's announcement.
But her friend Rick Pateraoa, 23, of Schaumburg, said: "You always hear about stuff like that on the news but it never hits close to home. ... It always happens to great people."
Posted by Nealus at October 26, 2005 04:51 PM
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