On October 4th, 2022 police got a shocking call that came from the Purdue University campus. This call changed everything for the university, and from that point forward nothing has been the same.
Two young men living in a college dorm together, just like many others their age. However, this roommate situation turned out to be a deadly one in the end. The question still lingering in everyone’s minds months later is why?
What could have possibly happened that led to the events that took place that fateful night? Was this a heated argument that ended tragically? Or… was there more to the story that police just haven’t fully uncovered yet?
Varun Manish Chheda was only 20 years old at the time of his death in 2022. He was born on November 15th, 2001 to loving parents Seema Dedhiya and Manish Chheda in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Varun’s early life was said to be very happy and loving. He absolutely loved spending as much time with his family, especially his sister who he was very protective over as most older brothers are.
He was also always known for being extremely smart. After Varun graduated from high school, he went on to attend Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
He had many academic accomplishments in his life including being runner up in the Science Bowl Competition in 2016. He also was a National Merit Scholarship award winner and was apart of Purdue’s Honor College program.
Varun always excelled academically, and this didn’t change at all when he began college. At Purdue he began studying data science as science was always one of his biggest passions in life.
There isn’t much information available to the public regarding Varun’s personal life as he was a very private person. He wasn’t very into social media, and usually was very quiet and kept to himself most of the time.
However, Varun’s close family and friends said he was a very respectful and kind young man who enjoyed the simple things in life and always remain humble in every situation. They said he had so many accomplishments, but he never bragged about them and he always just wanted to be friends with everyone.
On October 4th, 2022, Varun was living in a dorm hall known as McCutcheon Hall on Purdue’s campus. He had a roommate in this room as well that he had been living with for a couple of months at this point. This is normal for most college students that still live on campus in the dorms, but for Varun this would sadly end in the most horrific way possible.
October 4th, 2022 was just like any other day for 20 year old college student Varun Chheda. It was a Tuesday, and Varun had attended some classes he had earlier in the day. However, after classes he decided to wind down later in the evening and take some time to himself.
In the late evening that night, Varun began playing games and chatting online with friends through Discord as he often did most nights. When Varun and his friends would play these games together they would all wear headsets and talk to each other while playing.
However, shortly after midnight, Varun’s friends heard something very disturbing over their headsets that they weren’t expecting.
They were in the middle of playing their game when they suddenly heard Varun screaming over the call. The friends were very confused and didn’t know what was going on, all they could hear was screaming and what sounded like some sort of struggle to them.
However, eventually the screaming came to an end and when the friends on the call started calling out Varun’s name into their headsets, they weren’t getting any response back from him. Eventually the call was ended and the friends were left very confused and shaken up by this experience.
That was when around 12:45 a.m. that night police received a call from Varun’s roommate reporting his death to them. Police immediately rushed over to this dorm room and there they found 20 year old Varun Chheda already deceased.
The police that arrived on seen immediately knew that this was a murder just from looking at the body. Varun had been stabbed to death with some sort of sharp object.
Police immediately arrested Varun’s roommate that night and took him to the police station for further investigation.
So who was Varun Chheda’s roommate you may be asking?
Well he was a 22 year old man named Ji Min Sha, who also went by the nickname “Jimmy”.
Sha was a junior at Purdue University, but he was actually an international student who was originally from Seoul, South Korea.
Jimmy was attending Purdue for that school year and he was studying cybersecurity.
There isn’t much background information available online about who Jimmy was as a person before this crime occurred.
However, what we do know is that Varun and Jimmy were roommates and the fall semester had really only just began and nobody reported ever hearing about any significant problems the two may have had with each other.
They didn’t know each other before moving in together in the dorm, but most of Varun’s friends and family said that Varun liked Jimmy just fine and that his roommate situation for that school year seemed to be working out good for the both of them.
So, when police got this call from Jimmy that night reporting that Varun was dead in their room, the police and everyone at the university and surrounding area was so confused as to why this may have happened.
Police discovered in the young men’s room that Varun was stabbed to death in the head and neck mostly with a folding knife that they discovered near his body. It was clear to police that Varun had been sitting in a chair playing video games when Jimmy came up to him from behind and attacked him.
After police began questioning Jimmy after his arrest, he wasn’t talking much at all. However, even without Jimmy directly confessing to the murder, police had enough evidence to charge him anyways.
Police officially decided to charge Jin Min Sha with the murder of Varun Manish Chheda.
The only thing that Jimmy has said since being in custody for the murder of his roommate was that he was “sorry” and that he was “blackmailed” but he never elaborated further on this and police haven’t released any information regarding this comment.
Jimmy’s defense team tried to get him an insanity plea and stated that he wasn’t in the correct psychological state when he committed this violent act. And according to doctors and health professionals that the state brought in to evaluate him, it turns out he isn’t fit to stand trail for the murder.
On April 21st, 2023 it was determined that Jimmy Sha was mentally unfit to be held responsible for the murder after experiencing many hallucinations and delusional thoughts while in police custody. He was then committed to the Division of Mental Health and Addiction.
The doctors at this hospital will once again have time with Jimmy one on one and the court will reevaluate in a few months if he still isn’t fit to stand trial and if he’s not he will be sentenced to a mental health insinuation for however long the court sees fit.
The question still even over 7 months after the tragic murder on everyone’s minds that we don’t seem to know yet is why?
However, as of right now with this case being still fairly recent and the accused being mentally ill, we might never find out exactly why this happened. It’s really heartbreaking to think about, especially for Varun’s loved ones that they may never get the closure of knowing the reason behind his horrible murder.
All that everyone knows as of right now is that this murder seemed senseless and completely unprovoked. These two men were roommates who seemed to get along with one another just fine up until this point. However, there might have been more below the surface going on that dorm room that we just don’t know about.
I really do hope that Varun’s parents and loved ones get the answers and closure they so desperately deserve one day soon. This case is still ongoing and Jimmy Sha remains in a mental health institution for right now.
We should see within the next few months or so exactly what kind of sentence he’s going to be given for his crimes whether that be in a health facility or prison- we really can’t say for sure.
Sources:
Roback, J. (2022, October 7). Who was Purdue University student, Varun Manish Chheda?. The US Sun.