UpNorth
Jan 20th 2007, 04:04 PM
Journal and Courier
Lafayette, IN
This week, Dawn Adams eloquently expressed the pain associated with every parent's nightmare -- that their child may not be not OK.
"It's really hard to consider the possibility that he might be suffering or in pain," she said of her son, 19-year-old Wade S. Steffey, who has been missing since Jan. 13.
Steffey's roommate, who returned from a weekend away on Tuesday morning, said he found their Cary Quadrangle dorm room with lights and the Internet turned on. Steffey's shoes sat next to his desk. There has been no confirmed sign of him for a week.
By all accounts, this standout Purdue freshman has no demons. He graduated at the top of his Bloomington high school class and is an Eagle Scout and National Merit Scholar. That's what makes this situation so puzzling -- and so frightening.
This is a not young man who is living on the fringe, dabbling with dangers that require constant intervention from family, teachers or authorities.
This is a young man whose mysterious disappearance is compounded by the promise of the bright future that stretches before him.
Did he leave voluntarily? No one who knows him believes it is in character for him to do so.
More than 350 people, both students -- and members of the wider community -- pulled together Thursday, launching a massive search for clues. Many people -- mostly strangers to Steffey and his famly -- showed the fiber of their character when they stepped forward to help. And they showed how close-knit this community truly is.
It's thought Steffey last used his cell phone at 12:31 a.m. Jan. 13 when he called a friend at Owen Hall. But that call went unanswered, like many of the questions his family and the wider community now ask.
Where is Wade? What happened in the moments after that phone call? And most of all, the one that haunts us most: Is he OK?
Our hearts go out to him, his parents and his friends as we hope and pray for his safe return.
Lafayette, IN
This week, Dawn Adams eloquently expressed the pain associated with every parent's nightmare -- that their child may not be not OK.
"It's really hard to consider the possibility that he might be suffering or in pain," she said of her son, 19-year-old Wade S. Steffey, who has been missing since Jan. 13.
Steffey's roommate, who returned from a weekend away on Tuesday morning, said he found their Cary Quadrangle dorm room with lights and the Internet turned on. Steffey's shoes sat next to his desk. There has been no confirmed sign of him for a week.
By all accounts, this standout Purdue freshman has no demons. He graduated at the top of his Bloomington high school class and is an Eagle Scout and National Merit Scholar. That's what makes this situation so puzzling -- and so frightening.
This is a not young man who is living on the fringe, dabbling with dangers that require constant intervention from family, teachers or authorities.
This is a young man whose mysterious disappearance is compounded by the promise of the bright future that stretches before him.
Did he leave voluntarily? No one who knows him believes it is in character for him to do so.
More than 350 people, both students -- and members of the wider community -- pulled together Thursday, launching a massive search for clues. Many people -- mostly strangers to Steffey and his famly -- showed the fiber of their character when they stepped forward to help. And they showed how close-knit this community truly is.
It's thought Steffey last used his cell phone at 12:31 a.m. Jan. 13 when he called a friend at Owen Hall. But that call went unanswered, like many of the questions his family and the wider community now ask.
Where is Wade? What happened in the moments after that phone call? And most of all, the one that haunts us most: Is he OK?
Our hearts go out to him, his parents and his friends as we hope and pray for his safe return.