'An exceptionally brilliant person with a great future'

Mahesh Mahadevan went missing hours before his 23rd birthday April 11. Five days later, the body of the University of California, Irvine second year PhD student was found.

The police say it is suicide. His parents in Kerala and his friends at the university cannot believe it. Before the body was found, police Detective Roland Chiu said there were no signs of foul-play. 'No one had noticed anything out of the ordinary. He was a very bright guy, and everything was going smoothly for him,' Chiu said.

'He had many friends,' noted findmahesh.com, a site set up immediately after he went missing, 'and all of his friends vouch for the fact that he had always seemed enthusiastic, energetic and ready to take on anything, and most importantly helpful.'

"He was a cheerful person and very popular," said PhD student Nithya Sambasivan, president of Surabhi, the Indian students association at the university. "He was a true genius. We have no idea if he faced any kind of problems."

Mahesh, she said, was very active in the association too. "He was an exceptionally brilliant person with a great future. We are still in pains to think that he is no more," said PhD student Bharat Rajaram, vice president, Surabhi.

Sambasiavan and Rajaram spearheaded efforts to complete the formalities to send Mahadevan's body back home. They found that it could cost a minimum of $10,000. Soon a request was made through the Web site. They collected the money within 48 hours. Though they announced closing the fundraising, more people came forward with requests to send money.

Due to the requests, the fundraising continues.

'In the event of surplus funds, we will act in consultation with his parents and do what seems right to them,' the Web site said.

Mahadevan was a student of mechanical and aerospace engineering and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

His father Mahadeva Sharma is an employee at the Medical Trust Hospital in Kochi, Kerala. Mahadevan's friends arranged a pre-birthday party Saturday, April 10. But all calls went to his voice mail. His friends went to his apartment; his roommate said he was not home. They left a note asking him to call them back or come over to a friend's apartment. By the evening of April 11, no one had heard from him.

A missing persons report was filed. April 15 night, two hikers discovered a body near the UCI observatory. The next day it was confirmed that it was a case of suicide and the body was Mahadevan's.

'Mahesh, as was his nature, never wanted to burden anyone with his problems. Neither his family nor his friends had an inkling of what Mahesh was going through or how he was handling it,' his friends noted on the Web site. 'Why it happened? Nobody knows, the mystery may never be solved.'

UCI spokeswoman Laura Rico said that Mahadevan had a plastic bag over his head and investigators suspected he committed suicide by asphyxiation. He carried no identification. Because of the body's decomposition, authorities determined he died days before his body was discovered, Rico said. Mahadevan's belongings, including his bank cards, were left in his apartment.

On his profile on the social networking website Orkut, his photograph was missing. The message there said, 'I was here.'