Boston police still have no answers after the death of a Northeastern University student, who was missing for more than a day before being found dead at his Huntington Avenue apartment Wednesday morning.
Senior Walter Dedrick, a business major from Key West, Fla., was found dead in his living room at 10:20 a.m., according to a Boston Police Department press release. He was last seen at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday on the way home from his friend’s apartment on Hemenway Street.
Boston Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office are now trying to retrace Dedrick’s steps Tuesday, hoping to pinpoint how he spent the last 24 hours of his life. So far, authorities have not accounted for Dedrick’s whereabouts from early Tuesday morning until midday Wednesday.
The cause of death is also under investigation, and while the Boston Herald reported Friday that Dedrick was “beaten to a pulp,” The Boston Globe reported that Dedrick’s body was unharmed.
David Procopio, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney, said Dedrick may have been beaten to death and that his clothing was torn and his body bruised and scraped. Authorities are still investigating whether or not his wounds were the cause of death and would not release any additional information Sunday.
The district attorney’s office is also looking into whether Dedrick drank himself to death, but his father, Warren Dedrick told the Globe that his son was “never a big drinker.”
Northeastern spokeswoman Emily Donahue said an autopsy will be completed within two weeks and authorities will then provide “a report as to what was in his system,” but that even if Dedrick had consumed an alcohol excessive amount of alcohol, it may have played no role in his death.
“It is very open right now,” she said. “No one knows what happened within those few hours.”
Dedrick is the sixth Northeastern student to die this academic year and the third this semester. The deaths have ranged from car accidents to suicides and medical mishaps – one student died after having a seizure during the first week of school.
Northeastern officials will again provide counseling for students, and the school provided buses to a memorial service held Sunday afternoon in Lexington.
“We’ve expressed condolences to his family,” Northeastern spokesman Tom Kneaffey said. The university is also assisting Boston police in the ongoing investigation.
Dedrick was last seen wearing a dark brown suede jacket, blue jeans, black shoes and a tan baseball cap. He was clean shaven. Boston police have asked anyone who may have seen Dedrick between Tuesday and Wednesday to contact BPD. The BPD’s confidential tip line is 1-800-494-TIPS.
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