ISU student death ruled an accident

TERRE HAUTE – An autopsy has determined that an Indiana State University student whose body was found in the Wabash River died of an accidental drowning.

A university spokesman said the ruling was made Saturday in the death of 22-year-old Gerald Smith of Avon, Ind.

Smith’s body was found Friday evening in the river at Vincennes, about 50 miles downstream from the spot near the Terre Haute campus where he was last seen around 1 a.m. May 1.

Volunteers and others had searched for Smith, who went missing after leaving a near-campus bar where he had been with friends celebrating the completion of a class project.

He had been expected to graduate Saturday.