Purdue doctoral student missing

WEST LAFAYETTE -- Purdue University police are involved in a search for a second missing Purdue student, but investigators do not believe the case is connected to that of a missing Purdue student from Bloomington.\nDoctoral student Eric M. Campbell disappeared during a trip to Texas and Mexico, while freshman Wade Steffey was last reported seen at a fraternity house in West Lafayette.\n"The timelines are different," Purdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said in a news release Tuesday. "Wade was last seen shortly after midnight Jan. 13. Campbell was in El Paso on Jan. 12 and then arrived in Mexico at 8 p.m. that day."\nCampbell's luggage arrived at Indianapolis International Airport after he bought a ticket to fly back to Indiana from El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 18, investigators said.\nBut Norberg said there is no evidence the 33-year-old student ever boarded the flight.\nCampbell, of Avilla, Ind., left campus Jan. 8 to travel to El Paso en route to a wedding in Juarez, Mexico. Purdue police contacted police in El Paso 10 days later after he did not return.\nA friend of Campbell's who lives in Mexico told police he had returned to the United States on Jan. 15, and police confirmed that he bought an airline ticket to Indianapolis in El Paso on Jan. 18 but never arrived. Campbell's mother told police that she has not heard from him, Norberg said.\n"Friends and colleagues are puzzled and are hoping to hear from him," she said.\nCampbell, who had worked as an engineer in Mexico after receiving a master's degree from Purdue in 2000, had recently enrolled as a doctoral student at the West Lafayette campus.\nSteffey, 19, of Bloomington, was last seen early Jan. 13 after a party at the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity house on the north side of campus.