wondering where he was. it was hard for me, knowing that he was alone, and we weren t able to tell that we could love him. and he died alone in the middle of the woods. reporter: she wasn t just said, he was angry. priya thought she heard the police judging her brother. they said he was drunk. college guy, could couldn t handle his liquor, ended up dead. reporter: police had a news conference that afternoon. the difficult terrain and cold temperatures seem to have contributed to pravin s difficulty finding his way out of the woods. monica watched the professor at a friends. i thought, this doesn t sound right, though. she was struck by the sight of pravin s mother on tv. lovely had gone to the scene where her son died. when i first saw his mom, i remember thinking, she s obviously not from southern illinois. she s a stranger in a strange land. she does not know this town. i have so many questions and i m from here. reporter: monica didn t know
welcome to reality with monica. and for years, she hosted a friday night radio show called reality check. did you check scandal or city hall, politics? oh, yeah. oh yeah. i like to push the envelope a little bit. so, it wasn t unusual for people to send her tips about stories to watch. that s how this all began in february, 2014. i had a random facebook message from somebody i ve never heard of and it said, have you heard about this? and it was a link to a flyer for a missing person. 19-year-old pravin varughese. a college sophomore at southern illinois university in carbondale. last seen leaving a house party, stepping out into the bitter cold. and i was like, where did this kid go? why did you think maybe he took an early spring break to travel? the young man that contacted me was in distress. he said, this is abnormal, he would not do this. something is wrong.
to keep it together. now there s new theraflu flu relief with a max strength fever fighting formula. the right tool for long lasting flu symptom relief. hot beats flu. ever leave your clothes in the dryer and find a wrinkled mess? try downy wrinkle guard fabric softener! wrinkle guard penetrates deep into fibers, leaving clothes so soft, wrinkles don t want to stick around. make mornings smoother with downy wrinkle guard fabric softener. flu symptoms hit harder than the common cold. so it takes the right tool for the job. to keep it together. now there s new theraflu flu relief with a max strength fever fighting formula. the right tool for long lasting flu symptom relief. hot beats flu. yes pravin s room has been left untouched since his death. it s a strain of sorts. lovely priest their most nights
the only brand with real honeyand elderberry. lovely gazed out a hotel window and waited for news of her missing son. memories crowded out the quiet. reporter: pravin, her chatty, energetic child was always in motion. from the time he was little.
monica learned that pravin came from chicago, a six hour drive away. he was the adored middle child of two first generation immigrants from india. his dad was a respiratory therapist, his mom lovely, a nurse. thursday morning i walk up with this awful feeling of something heavy in my chest. when the phone rang that night, lovely expected to hear pravin s voice. he called whom most evenings. but it wasn t her son, it was a police officer. and he said, well, your son is reported missing by his cousin. i just screamed. everything changed that moment. everything changed. so, lovely and her husband drove to carbondale and met their daughter at pravin s student apartment. there was no sign of their boy. my parents are just so mentally out of it. it was just so hard. i felt like i had to be the one to step up, because this my brother. i wanted to find him more than anything in the world. i just wanted him back. pre-organize bus loads of volunteers who showed up from