Signal Narrows Search For Missing Purdue Student's Phone

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Police and others on Saturday will search an area of Purdue University where a signal from a missing student's cell phone was picked up as recently as Wednesday, a university official said.

With help from Wade Steffey's cell phone service provider, authorities traced the location of his phone to the area of the Purdue's football stadium and campus, Purdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said.

"It could be in a building, it could be in a manhole, we don't know," she said. "But we do know it's in the academic campus or the area right around it."

Steffey, 19, a Purdue freshman and Bloomington native, was last seen early Jan. 13 leaving a party at the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity house on the north side of campus, police said.

The fraternity where Steffey last was seen is in a different area than where the cell phone signal was last received, Norberg said. The cell phone signal stopped on Wednesday, and authorities assume the battery went dead but don't know whether the phone is still with Steffey.

The signal last came from an area bounded by Russell Street, State Street and Northwestern Avenue. The area includes much of the northeastern portion of the university's academic campus.

Police do not believe Steffey was intoxicated the night he disappeared. A $50 withdrawal was made from his bank account at a campus ATM at about 8:30 p.m. Friday and his cell phone was last used about four hours later, police said.

Several hundred people on Thursday helped police officers search campus buildings, nearby neighborhoods and wooded areas and Purdue's horticulture park without finding any signs of Steffey or his belongings.

Dawn Adams and Dale Steffey, the missing student's parents, have been in West Lafayette since late Tuesday.

"I have a lot knotted up inside," Adams said. "Dale had trouble breathing yesterday sometimes."

At least a few dozen people are expected to travel from Bloomington to join a prayer vigil planned for Saturday afternoon near Purdue's Bell Tower.

Steffey's parents set up a reward fund Friday seeking information about his disappearance.

"We hope this reward will generate additional interest and encourage someone to come forward with information that helps us find Wade," Norberg said.