The Purdue University student suspected this week of murdering his roommate in their dorm room confessed to police that he stabbed him to death, according to an affidavit.
The university’s police department received a call from the student, Ji Min Sha, at 12:44 p.m. Wednesday, the affidavit said.
When officers arrived at their first-floor room in McCutcheon Hall, they found the roommate, Varun Manish Chheda, in a chair with “multiple stab wounds and cuts,” the affidavit said.
There were “blood spatters on the wall, a pool of blood on the floor and a pocketknife on the floor,” the document said.
Sha, a 22-year-old international student from South Korea, had what appeared to be blood on his clothes and on his body and was being held, the affidavit said.
When Sha spoke to detectives, he confessed to the murder, according to the affidavit.
“Sha said the knife on the floor belonged to him, and admitted that he used the knife to kill Chheda while sitting in the chair where police found him,” the affidavit said. “Sha said that after killing Chheda, he called 911 and stayed in the room until officers arrived and arrested him.”
However, the affidavit shed no light on a motive for the attack. Purdue University Police Chief Lesley Wiete previously said she believed Chheda’s death was “unprovoked and meaningless”.
Sha first appeared in court on Friday in a small courtroom at the Tippecanoe County Jail, before Tippecanoe County Magistrate Sarah Wyatt. He was wearing a black jumpsuit and orange slippers.
During the hearing, Sha kept his head down and arms folded as he looked nervous.
The Tippecanoe County District Attorney has given Sha a 72-hour detention to “further investigate” the incident, the Tippecanoe County office said.
The custody lasts through Thursday, as it excludes weekend days and Monday is a public holiday, meaning the courts are closed. The formal charges are expected to be filed thereafter.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
